GDI Lecture: Fettered Development and Political Turmoil: 15 Years Since the Arab Spring, Gilbert Achcar
| Dates: | 19 November 2025 |
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| Times: | 16:30 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | Global Development Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Current University students |
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Speaker: Gilbert Achcar, SOAS
The political landscape in the MENA region looks bleaker today than ever before. This is in sharp contrast with the euphoria aroused fifteen years ago by the 2011 revolutionary shockwave commonly known as the Arab Spring. Two years into that shockwave, regional political winds had already reversed. But a further wave in 2019 renewed the hopes of the first. Whereas the key reason for this misfortune is clearly political, the root cause for the upheaval itself is to be found in the socioeconomic conditions underlying the regional discontent. The permanence, and even aggravation, of these conditions explain why the region is increasingly mired in turmoil and why further social and political explosions are to be expected.
Gilbert Achcar is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of many books, including two on the Arab Spring – The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (2013, 2nd ed. 2022) and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (2016). His latest book is The Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide is World-Historical Perspective (2025).
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