Interview: Ousting the Brutal Assad Regime Brings Euphoria and More Questions admin, December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 Counterpunch Interview of Stephen Zunes Dec. 11, 2024by Daniel Falcone. “There are indications it was unarmed civil resistance led by resurgent popular committees and local councils, which initially came to the fore in the early nonviolent phase of the revolution 2011, that actually wrested control of much of the local… Continue Reading
TV 4 Interviews on Syria & Ouster of Assad, December 2024 admin, December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 Fox-2/KTVU: Russia grants asylum to ousted Syrian leader And 3 more aired on Al Jazeera Media View, December 2024: US has carried out air strikes on 75 ISIL targets throughout Syria Thousands celebrate in Damascus Assad’s leaving the capital Damascus Plus a one-minute excerpt gone viral. Continue Reading
Syria Background: Zunes’ Articles, Interviews & Videos Since 2011 Arab Spring admin, December 12, 2024January 6, 2025 From Gaza to Aleppo: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes: This article notes the remarkable parallel in the language used by those defending war crimes by the Assad regime and war crimes by Israel Here’s an analysis also from 2016 regarding the state of the conflict and U.S. policy:… Continue Reading
Video: Oxford Union Debate Against Military Intervention to Promote Democracy admin, October 9, 2024January 13, 2025 This House Would Fight for Democracy, Liberty & the Rule of Law Abroad, April 8, 2023 [11 mins., Prof. Stephen Zunes’ impassioned argument against John Bolton.] Continue Reading
Nobel Peace Prize spotlights National Dialogue Quartet admin, November 20, 2015August 14, 2024 Bloody civil wars, the rise of the so-called “Islamic State,” the continued rule by absolute monarchs and other despots, and the ongoing Israeli and Moroccan occupations have left many skeptical of the prospects of peace, democracy and stability in the Arab world…. Continue Reading
The Arab Spring, Two Years Later (video) admin, March 12, 2013July 14, 2024 DU Center for Middle East Studies Professor Zunes discusses the current state of the Arab world in the wake of the 2011 uprisings, the strength and successes of non-violent sociopolitical movements in the region, and the corresponding shifts now required of U.S. foreign policy. Continue Reading
Interview: Arab Revolutions, U.S. Middle East Policy, Iran, and Israel-Palestine (audio) admin, July 11, 2012July 16, 2024 Arab Voices Radio A live discussion with professor Zunes about the current uprisings in the Middle East and nonviolent movements; the foreign intervention by the U.S., Europe, China, Russia and others in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and other Arab countries; the ongoing war rhetoric against Iran by the U.S. and Israel; the recent H.R. resolution 4133 that passed by a vote of 411-2 described by Zunes as “a dangerous piece of legislation which would undermine the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, weaken Israeli moderates and peace advocates, undercut international law, further militarize the Middle East, and make Israel ever more dependent on the United States”; the prospects for real peace in the Middle East; and much more. Continue Reading
Sudan’s protests become civil insurrection admin, July 6, 2012August 15, 2024 A growing anti-government movement consisting of nonviolent demonstrations as well as scattered rioting is beginning to threaten the Sudanese dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war criminal, who has ruled this large North African nation for twenty-three years. Beginning as protests against strict austerity measures imposed three weeks ago, the chants of the protesters have escalated to “the people want to overthrow the regime,” the line heard in recent uprisings in other Arab countries, including Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Syria. Continue Reading
Interview: U.S. Mid-East Policy in Relation to the Ongoing Uprising in Bahrain (audio) admin, July 5, 2012August 15, 2024 Radio Free Santa Cruz Continue Reading
Unarmed resistance still Syria’s best hope admin, January 26, 2012August 16, 2024 The Syrian pro-democracy struggle has been both an enormous tragedy and a powerful inspiration. Indeed, as someone who has studied mass nonviolent civil insurrections in dozens of countries in recent decades, I know of no people who have demonstrated such courage and tenacity in the face of such savage repression as have the people of Syria these past 10 months. Continue Reading
Obama’s Mideast Speech: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward admin, May 22, 2011August 21, 2024 Although President Barack Obama’s May 19 address on U.S. Middle East policy had a number of positive elements, overall it was a major disappointment. His speech served as yet another reminder that his administration’s approach to the region differs in several important ways from that of his immediate predecessor, but he failed to consistently assert principled U.S. support for human rights, democracy, or international law. Continue Reading
Yemen on the Edge admin, May 13, 2011January 21, 2025 Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition in this impoverished but strategically important country. Continue Reading
Interview: Pro-Democracy Struggles in the Middle East (audio) admin, March 28, 2011January 21, 2025 World Streams Continue Reading
Pro-Democracy Protests Spread to Oman admin, March 7, 2011January 21, 2025 Foreign Policy In Focus/Insitute for Policy Studies March 7, 2011. Also in Eurasia Review and Huffington Post Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle… Continue Reading
America Blows It on Bahrain admin, March 2, 2011January 31, 2025 The Obama administration’s continued support of the autocratic monarchy in Bahrain, in the face of massive pro-democracy demonstrators, once again puts the United States behind the curve of the new political realities in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, a nonviolent sit-in and encampment by tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has occupied the Pearl Roundabout. This traffic circle in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama – like Tahrir Square in Cairo – has long been the symbolic center of the city and, by extension, the center of the country. Though these demonstrations and scores of others across the country have been overwhelmingly nonviolent, they have been met by severe repression by the U.S.-backed monarchy. Continue Reading
Credit the Egyptian People for the Egyptian Revolution admin, February 17, 2011January 21, 2025 While there will undoubtedly have to be additional popular struggle in Egypt to ensure that the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak leads to real democracy, the ouster of the dictator is by any measure a major triumph for the Egyptian people and yet another example of the power of nonviolent action. Indeed, Egypt joins such diverse countries as the Philippines, Poland, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Nepal, Serbia, Bolivia, Indonesia, and others whose authoritarian regimes were replaced by democratic governance as a result of such unarmed civil insurrections. Continue Reading
Mubarak’s Ouster: Good for Egypt, Good for Israel admin, February 15, 2011January 21, 2025 The inspiring triumph of the Egyptian people in the nonviolent overthrow of the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak is a real triumph of the human spirit. While there will likely be continued struggle in order to insure that the military junta will allow for a real democratic transition, the mobilization of Egypt’s civil society and the empowerment of millions of workers, students, intellectuals and others in the cause of freedom will be difficult to contain. Continue Reading
Interview: Departure of Mubarak and the Future of Egypt (audio) admin, February 14, 2011September 12, 2024 China Radio International Continue Reading
Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran admin, February 10, 2011September 12, 2024 Some prominent congressional leaders and media pundits, in a cynical effort to mislead the American public into supporting the Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and opposing the popular nonviolent struggle for democracy, have raised the specter of Egypt’s government falling into the hands of radical Islamists who would attack Israel and support international terrorism. To illustrate this frightening scenario, these apologists for authoritarianism try to compare the current pro-democracy uprising against the U.S.-backed Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak with the 1978-79 insurrection against the U.S.-backed Iranian dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi. Continue Reading
Egypt’s pro-democracy movement: The struggle continues admin, February 8, 2011September 12, 2024 Despite the natural subsidence of dramatic demonstrations on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, as many protesters return to jobs and catch their breath, there is little question that the pro-democracy struggle in Egypt has achieved lasting momentum, barring unexpected repression. As with other kinds of civil struggles, a movement using nonviolent resistance can ebb and flow. There may have to be tactical retreats, times for regrouping or resetting of strategy, or a focus on negotiations with the regime before broader operations that capture the world’s attention resume. Continue Reading