#Global Feed: All Foreign Affairs Content Skip to Navigation IFRAME: http://d3.zedo.com/jsc/d3/ff2.html?n=741;c=10/4/1;s=1;d=14;w=728;h=90; IFRAME: http://d3.zedo.com/jsc/d3/ff2.html?n=741;c=10/4/1;s=1;d=22;w=232;h=90; Home Foreign Affairs * Home * International Editions * Digital Newsstand * Job Board * Account Management * RSS * Newsletters ____________________ Search * Login * Register * My Cart Home › Features › Comments › Demystifying the Arab Spring Demystifying the Arab Spring Parsing the Differences Between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya By Lisa Anderson May/June 2011 Article Summary and Author Biography Why have the upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya followed such different paths? Because of the countries' vastly different cultures and histories, writes the president of the American University in Cairo. Washington must come to grips with these variations if it hopes to shape the outcomes constructively. This article appears in the Foreign Affairs/CFR eBook, The New Arab Revolt. LISA ANDERSON is President of the American University in Cairo. Print Email Buy PDF 6CommentsJoin Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com. In Tunisia, protesters escalated calls for the restoration of the country's suspended constitution. Meanwhile, Egyptians rose in revolt as strikes across the country brought daily life to a halt and toppled the government. In Libya, provincial leaders worked feverishly to strengthen their newly independent republic. It was 1919. That year's events demonstrate that the global diffusion of information and expectations -- so vividly on display in Tahrir Square this past winter -- is not a result of the Internet and social media. The inspirational rhetoric of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech, which helped spark the 1919 upheavals, made its way around the world by telegraph. The uprisings of 1919 also suggest that the calculated spread of popular movements, seen across the Arab world last winter, is not a new phenomenon. The Egyptian Facebook campaigners are the modern incarnation of Arab nationalist networks whose broadsheets disseminated strategies for civil disobedience throughout the region in the years after World War I. The important story about the 2011 Arab revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya is not how the globalization of the norms of civic engagement shaped the protesters' aspirations. Nor is it about how activists used technology to share ideas and tactics. Instead, the critical issue is how and why these ambitions and techniques resonated in their various local contexts. The patterns and demographics of the protests varied widely. The demonstrations in Tunisia spiraled toward the capital from the neglected rural areas, finding common cause with a once powerful but much repressed labor movement. In Egypt, by contrast, urbane and cosmopolitan young people in the major cities organized the uprisings. Meanwhile, in Libya, ragtag bands of armed rebels in the eastern provinces ignited the protests, revealing the tribal and regional cleavages that have beset the country for decades. Although they shared a common call for personal dignity and responsive government, the revolutions across these three countries reflected divergent economic grievances and social dynamics -- legacies of their diverse encounters with modern Europe and decades under unique regimes. This is a premium article You must be a logged in Foreign Affairs subscriber to continue reading. If you wish to continue reading this article please subscribe , or activate your online account to get full online access. Log In E-mail: * __________ Password: * ________ Login Buy PDF Buy a premium PDF reprint of this article. Buy PDF Subscribe Subscribe and get premium access to ForeignAffairs.com. Subscribe Related Comment, May/June 2011 The Rise of the Islamists [fa-article-premium-icon.png] Shadi Hamid The recent turmoil in the Middle East may lead to the Arab world's first sustained experiment in Islamist government. But the West need not fear. For all their anti-American rhetoric, today's mainstream Islamist groups tend to be pragmatic -- and ready to compromise if necessary on ideology and foreign policy. This article appears in the Foreign Affairs/CFR eBook, The New Arab Revolt. Read Comment, May/June 2011 Understanding the Revolutions of 2011 Jack A. Goldstone Revolutions rarely succeed, writes one of the world's leading experts on the subject -- except for revolutions against corrupt and personalist "sultanistic" regimes. This helps explain why Tunisia's Ben Ali and Egypt's Mubarak fell -- and also why some other governments in the region will prove more resilient. This article appears in the Foreign Affairs/CFR eBook, The New Arab Revolt. Read Snapshot, November 30, 2011 Writing Constitutions in the Wake of the Arab Spring Anthony Billingsley Tyrants have fallen in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Now these societies face a daunting task: Engineer constitutions to formalize democratic governments. That process is underway in all three countries. The risk now is that the drafters could dodge the very rules they're setting out to create. Read * New Issue * Archive * Regions * Topics * Features * Discussions * Books & Reviews * Classroom * About Us * Subscribe IFRAME: http://d3.zedo.com/jsc/d3/ff2.html?n=741;c=10/4/1;s=1;d=23;w=300;h=190; IFRAME: http://d3.zedo.com/jsc/d3/ff2.html?n=741;c=10/4/1;s=1;d=9;w=300;h=250; Most Viewed 1. Al Qaeda in Iran 2. The Future of History 3. China's Real Estate Bubble May Have Just Popped 4. Time to Attack Iran 5. 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