Endgames
Military Response to Protest in Arab Autocracies

Explores the different military responses to popular uprisings during the 2011 Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Libya.

Hicham Bou Nassif (Author)

9781108810159, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 October 2020

300 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.46 kg

'A refreshing take on military reactions to nonviolent mass protest in the Arab world. Drawing on a historical-institutionalist perspective, the empirically rich case studies generate new insights into the complicated interaction between autocratic leaders, military elites and protest movements during episodes of civic resistance. At a moment when democracy is in decline worldwide and elected civilian leaders in the West threaten peaceful protesters with military force, the understanding of military decisions about whether to support or withhold support from political leaders gains a new significance.' Aurel Croissant, Heidelberg University

The 2011 Arab Spring is the story of what happens when autocrats prepare their militaries to thwart coups but unexpectedly face massive popular uprisings instead. When demonstrators took to the streets in 2011, some militaries remained loyal to the autocratic regimes, some defected, whilst others splintered. The widespread consequences of this military agency ranged from facilitating transition to democracy, to reconfiguring authoritarianism, or triggering civil war. This study aims to explain the military politics of 2011. Building on interviews with Arab officers, extensive fieldwork and archival research, as well as hundreds of memoirs published by Arab officers, Hicham Bou Nassif shows how divergent combinations of coup-proofing tactics accounted for different patterns of military behaviour in 2011, both in Egypt and Syria, and across Tunisia, and Libya.

Introduction
1. Coups, coup-proofing, and military politics in endgames
2. Coups, coup-proofing, and regime formation in Egypt and Syria
3. Coups, coup-proofing, and the neoliberal age in Egypt and Syria
4. How coup-proofing structured military response to protest in Egypt and Syria
5. How coup-proofing structured military response to protest in Tunisia and Libya.

Subject Areas: Civil defence [JWKW], Military tactics [JWKT], Armed conflict [JPWS], Revolutionary groups & movements [JPWQ], Demonstrations & protest movements [JPWF], Political activism [JPW], Political oppression & persecution [JPVR], Political control & freedoms [JPV]