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February 3, 2012

Arab Spring or Islamist Winter?

Michael J. Totten, World Affairs Journal

AP Photo

The phrase 'Arab Spring' is a misnomer. The political upheavals sweeping Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria are concurrent yet different phenomena, and it's premature to assume that any of them, let alone all of them, will bring their respective countries out of the long Arab winter of authoritarian rule. In the medium term, the number of genuinely liberal democracies to emerge in the Arab world is likely to be one or zero.

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TAGGED: Egypt, Arab Spring

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