The Arab Uprisings Under Lockdown: Popular Protests in the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis

Jointly organized by the AJC Transatlantic Institute, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

Panelists

• Michael Singh, Managing Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
• Zine Labidine Ghebouli, Consultant, Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut                      

Moderator

• Kristina Kausch, Senior Resident Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Since the protests that began in Sudan in December 2018 and eventually ousted the authoritarian ruler of 30 years, Omar al Bashir, in April 2019, a fresh wave of popular protests has spread across the Middle East and North Africa. Throughout 2019, people in Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Gaza took to the streets to demand accountability from their government. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s president for two decades, was forced to resign in April 2019, leaving the country in an ongoing search for new leadership and a more accountable system of governance. In Iraq and Lebanon last November and January respectively, Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Saad Hariri also had to step down under the pressure of protests. Many talked of an Arab Spring 2.0—and then the Coronavirus hit the region.

In this webinar we will discuss the legacy of this new wave of popular protests, and assess how the lockdown and other emergency policies adopted in countries across the region in the wake of the coronavirus crisis are affecting popular mobilization and demands for accountability. We will also discuss the EU’s and the United States’ policy reactions and attention to developments in the Arab world in the midst of their focus on the pandemic. How is the current situation in the region likely to evolve? Are governments instrumentalizing the health emergency to strangle dissent? Are anti-lockdown protests adding momentum to popular demands for accountability? What role to envisage for Europe and for the United States?

Please register to join the conversation and take part in the Q&A with the panelists.

If you have any questions, please contact Alberto Tagliapietra at [email protected].