What Effect, If Any, Has the Obama Administration Had on Geographies of International Relations and Politics with Regards to the ‘Arab Spring’ Uprising?
What effect, if any, has the Obama administration had on geographies of international relations and politics with regards to the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising?
Geography has been ever-present within political and developmental endeavors worldwide. Through the emergence of rational and forward-thinking states, the processes of modernity and orientalism (Said, 1977), and establishment of rudimental international relations, geography has always had its place carving the way in terms of how we think about spatial realities. Looking at more contemporary ideologies of post-modernism and the rejection of spatial emphasis, through the heightened interconnectivity that comprehensively covers our world (Ó Tuathail, 1998), this essay will focus on the fragile relations between the Obama administration and North Africa and Middle East during the ongoing turmoil regarding the Arab Spring. Seeing what effect legislation and policies implemented by the US government has had on the nations undergoing or exiting political upheaval, as well as American perceptions in the shaping of international development and geopolitics. It is necessary to point out that this essay will pick out examples from an array of nations, rather than highlight one state, to utilize relevant events coordinated with geopolitical processes. It will centre on the social, economic and political areas in which the Obama administration has affected the region.
Socially, the Arab Spring was very significant in publicizing the extent of civil unrest against an oppressive regime, that stretched beyond that of solely political action (Dabashi 2012). The revolutions that occurred in the spring of 2011 saw a new ‘liberation geography’ emerge in the Middle East and North Africa in an attempt to break away from tyrannical dictatorships, yet also the all-encompassing and ever-present stigma of Orientalism (Said 1977). The protestation that came out of Egypt carried the chant “al-Sha’b Yurid Isqat al-Nizam” (Dabashi
Geography has been ever-present within political and developmental endeavors worldwide. Through the emergence of rational and forward-thinking states, the processes of modernity and orientalism (Said, 1977), and establishment of rudimental international relations, geography has always had its place carving the way in terms of how we think about spatial realities. Looking at more contemporary ideologies of post-modernism and the rejection of spatial emphasis, through the heightened interconnectivity that comprehensively covers our world (Ó Tuathail, 1998), this essay will focus on the fragile relations between the Obama administration and North Africa and Middle East during the ongoing turmoil regarding the Arab Spring. Seeing what effect legislation and policies implemented by the US government has had on the nations undergoing or exiting political upheaval, as well as American perceptions in the shaping of international development and geopolitics. It is necessary to point out that this essay will pick out examples from an array of nations, rather than highlight one state, to utilize relevant events coordinated with geopolitical processes. It will centre on the social, economic and political areas in which the Obama administration has affected the region.
Socially, the Arab Spring was very significant in publicizing the extent of civil unrest against an oppressive regime, that stretched beyond that of solely political action (Dabashi 2012). The revolutions that occurred in the spring of 2011 saw a new ‘liberation geography’ emerge in the Middle East and North Africa in an attempt to break away from tyrannical dictatorships, yet also the all-encompassing and ever-present stigma of Orientalism (Said 1977). The protestation that came out of Egypt carried the chant “al-Sha’b Yurid Isqat al-Nizam” (Dabashi
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