The Negative Political Outcomes of the Arab Spring

A wave of protests has rocked the Middle East for the past two years. The long serving autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were toppled down.  Protesters in Bahrain unsuccessfully attempted to unseat their long serving leaders, as well. Currently, the highlight of the spring is in Syria which has been branded violent.

The post Arab spring governments have conducted elections, but they have been defeated to ratify new constitutions. The process of constitution making in Tunisia is deadlocked. Despite the creation of the new constitution in Egypt, its contents have been termed as leaning towards Islamic concept. Moreover, the crisis has provided an opportunity for the Islamist parties to further their unfair, intolerant, and unjust goals through elections. The leaders of these parties are seeking to implement severe sections of Sharia law. Some of these sections limit the rights of women and religious minorities

The sudden ousting of the autocratic regimes in Libya and Yemen and the ensuing factional wrangling by power coalitions has led to power vacuums.  These vacuums are being filled by terrorist outfits such as Al – Qaeda wing of North Africa and Yemen as they seek to expand territories of control. The vacuum has also been exploited by the Islamist insurgents such as the Sunni. They are pursuing to advance their radical influence in the area.  The outcome has been the volatile environment to the regional peace, America interests, and the western values. The power vacuum has further magnified the ethnic and civil differences in Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Bitter civil wars have taken place, as a result, and, they have become more intense in Syria. This has undermined successful transitions from becoming stable democracies.

The Arab Spring has influenced the change of foreign policy by the affected nations on an adverse side especially Egypt. The new leader of Egypt has distanced his country from the west and the US. Instead, the leader has embraced Iran and China. He has also fixed Egypt relations with Hamas. In the recent rocket attach crisis between Israel and Hamas, Cairo sympathized with the later by condemning Israel and calling home the ambassador.