Victor Hanson and Peter Berkowitz -- Revolution in the Arab World

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and military historian, professor of classics, and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which are Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, which Professor Hanson edited, and The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern, a volume of his essays.

Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
He is also cofounder and director of the Israel Program on Constitutional Government, has served as a senior consultant to the President's Council on Bioethics, and is a member of the Policy Advisory Board at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

In Tunisia on December 17, a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi protested the harassment he had suffered at the hands of police by committing suicide by setting himself ablaze. Since then, the governments of Tunisia and Egypt have been overthrown. A civil war has broken out in Libya. The king of Jordan has dismissed his cabinet and protests have taken place in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran. What has happened? Hanson and Berkowitz analyze the causes of these events (including the role of social networking) and discuss possible outcomes for the Middle East states enmeshed in popular unrest. They evaluate the implications for Israel and conclude with an assessment of President Obama's handling of these events and how the United States should respond to the ongoing unrest.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• HooverInstitutionUK
• Middle East
• turmoil
• democracy
• rebellion
• revolution
• Arabs
• Tunisia
• Egypt
• Libya
• unrest
• social networking
• Israel

[sixtiksix]

Who the hell is this Victor guy....and where the hell does he get off giving an informed analysis.....where is Glenn Beck and Joy Behar? We need to get to the bottom of this....we need Bill Maher.....

[Kurtlane]

Never forget that the people who have created the revolution in Egypt are the same Egyptians who have been massacring their Christian minority for all the years. Including this year.

[7beers]

@sixtiksix For all the difference in style and demeanor between Beck and VDH, I'd bet that on 99% of the substantive issues, their opinions are substantially identical.

[thanksfernuthin]

@Kurtlane I believe you underestimate the example Iraq will provide in the near/far future. It was part of our reasoning all along. And it was instrumental, I believe, in the turn overs we're seeing today. The theocracies may have a lead on organizing and may indeed come to power. But the results will mirror Saudi and Iranian examples. Their hold on control won't be firm enough for quite some time and the people will be able to change direction once they see their lives in contrast to Iraqis.

[beatles349]

we egyptian decide who rule as

[VoiceOfModeration]

Do you think the rebels in Libya are al-qaeda?

[VoiceOfModeration]

@Kurtlane Great point friend!

[Kurtlane]

Yes, Mubarak, Ben Ali, Abdullah of Jordan were / are better rulers than what the people there (with very few exceptions) deserve. Only Hafez Assad and his son, Saddam Hussein and Muamar Gaddafi are as bad as the local people deserve.

And of course whoever comes to power as a result of the current events will be blamed on Americans and Europeans. Unless he proves to be loved by the people (like Nasser).

(cont.)

[Kurtlane]

Bravo! One of the best analysis I've ever seen.

Only, at the very very end - it's very easy to see what will happen. "Islam" - in its worst political form - will win. There is no hope for democracy outside Iraq (where it was brought on bayonets of American troops). No one in the Middle East outside Iraq and some old people in Lebanon has any idea what democracy is. Few people there even really want it. It has no chance in foreceeable future.

(cont.)