Introduction: Neoliberal Governmentality and the Future of the State in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

From the inception of the “Arab Spring” in Tunisia in December 2010, the popular revolts soon spread across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to other Arab countries including also non-Arab countries such as Israel, Iran, and Turkey. The uprisings have not been limited to the region, however. Southern European cities (notably in Spain and Greece) saw hundreds of thousands of protesters responding to the democratic agenda of the Arab revolts as well as to local grievances such as austerity measures, national financial crises, neoconservative agendas, urban gentrification, human rights violations, and the European sovereign debt crisis (Monterescu and Shaindlinger 2013, p. 6). Protests considered to be inspired by the Arab uprisings also took place in the United States, Chile, and Brazil with varying degrees of success (ibid.).