The Arab Spring Is in Its Death Spiral. Does the West Still Care?
Tunisia was the best case, Sudan the last hope, Syria the bloodiest of all: The countries that not long ago sparked optimism for a democratic wave in the Arab world have descended into dictatorship, and Washington shouldn’t ignore them.
The past few months have brought despair to millions of Arabs as they’ve watched the rapid and seemingly definitive restoration of an old, dictatorial order throughout a region that was not long ago full of promise. The end of the Arab Spring has been forecast many times already. Now the last stubborn buds have been crushed.
Tunisia, the country that started the wave of democratic uprisings in December 2010, served for more than a decade as a model for other states contemplating the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Now it’s sliding back toward autocracy, with President Kais Saied, elected in 2019, appearing to outdo the country’s previous dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in repression…
