Can the Middle East’s Protest Movements Survive and Adapt to COVID-19?
Does COVID-19 spell victory for counterrevolutionary forces across the region? Or can popular movements adapt and even thrive in this new reality?
Over the past few years, the streets of capitals across the Middle East have been filled with some of the most significant people-powered protest movements seen since the Arab Spring. From Algeria to Lebanon to Iraq, these movements have been cross-sectarian, demanding accountable and transparent government and rejecting entrenched elites. But the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to extinguish this bright light on the democratic horizon. Restrictions on gatherings are straining the cohesion of protest movements, and ruling elites are using the crisis to stifle and erase these movements’ gains and reestablish their own popular support.
Drawing on original research in the region and the experiences of IRI program partners on the ground, this event explored how COVID-19 has created an opening for the political establishment and threatened the call for democratic rights.
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International Republican Institute
Dalia Ghanem
Resident scholar, Carnegie Middle East Center
Dalia Ghanem is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. She is a political scientist and an expert on Algeria. Her work examines also...
Dalia Ghanem is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. She is a political scientist and an expert on Algeria. Her work examines also political and extremist violence, radicalization and jihadism. She also focuses on the participation of women in jihadist groups. Ghanem has been a guest speaker on these issues in various conferences and a regular commentator in different Arab and international print and audio-visual media. Ghanem is the author of numerous publications, including most recently Algeria: The Disease of Repression (Carnegie), Coronavirus in Algeria: Change may have to wait (Middle East Eye), How Algeria’s Military Rules the Country (The Washington Post) and Another Battle of Algiers (The New York Times).
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Sajad Jiyad
Iraq Analyst and Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
Sajad Jiyad is a visiting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Jiyad is an Iraqi political analyst based i...
Sajad Jiyad is a visiting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Jiyad is an Iraqi political analyst based in Baghdad. He is the former Managing Director of the Al-Bayan Center, an Iraqi policy institute. Sajad's main focus is on public policy and governance in Iraq and he also works on capacity building of public institutions and civil society organisations through conferences, workshops and training programs. Frequently published and cited in media as an expert commentator, Sajad is also partnered with a number of international organisations and think tanks to provide ground-level research on Iraq and solutions for development-related issues. Sajad’s educational background is in Economics and Politics, and Islamic Studies.
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Patricia Karam
Regional Director of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Division, International Republican Institute
Patricia Karam is Regional Director of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Division at IRI. In this role she is responsible for the strategic oversight and leadership of the MEN...
Patricia Karam is Regional Director of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Division at IRI. In this role she is responsible for the strategic oversight and leadership of the MENA Division, a multimillion portfolio with programs focusing on citizen-responsive governance, political party development, legislative strengthening, and civil society capacity building. The MENA division conducts programming in 10 countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia.
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Sami Nader
Director, Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs
Sami Nader is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Lebanon Pulse, an economist, Middle Eastern affairs analyst and communications expert with extensive expertise in corporate strategy a...
Sami Nader is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Lebanon Pulse, an economist, Middle Eastern affairs analyst and communications expert with extensive expertise in corporate strategy and risk management. He currently directs the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, focusing on the economics and geopolitics of the Levant, and is a professor for USJ University in Beirut.
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Jonathan Tepperman
Editor in Chief, Foreign Policy
Jonathan Tepperman is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy and the author of The Fix: How Countries Use Crises to Solve the World’s Worst Problems. Befor...
Jonathan Tepperman is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy and the author of The Fix: How Countries Use Crises to Solve the World’s Worst Problems. Before joining FP, Tepperman served as managing editor of Foreign Affairs and, before that, as deputy editor of Newsweek’s international edition. He has written for a long list of publications and appears frequently on TV and radio. He has degrees from Yale, Oxford, and New York University.
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