Abstract

Monday 10 June 2013 5:15 for 5:30pm

Hughes Hall Special Seminar

Pavilion Room, Hughes Hall, Cambridge, CB1 2EW

For several decades the pace of political change in the Middle East had been slow, hence the revolutionary movements that spread across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 took everyone by surprise. Drawing on Eastern European precedents, many in the West refer to these events as the ’Arab Spring’. People in the Arab world prefer to speak of an ’Arab Awakening,’ an expression with clear antecedents in the social, national, constitutional and Islamic modernist reforms of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Whatever its name, it is clear that the region in question did reach a historic turning point: the rapid regime changes were universally hailed as a harbinger of democracy and a factor for rapid societal progress and liberalisation.

Two and a half years after the uprisings, this seminar aims at taking stock of political developments in key Middle Eastern and North African countries. The regimes may have changed, but the euphoria and revolutionary enthusiasm generated in the first few months are now almost obsolete. The political and security scene in most of the countries in the region remains in flux, often chaotic and more confusing than ever. And the hopes for social evolution appear to have been quite premature.

Demetrius Floudas revisits the topic, with a particular emphasis on Egypt, which has always been one of the trendsetters for the region. This lecture intends to present a quick overview of the uprisings of 2011, and will follow with deeper analysis of its causes, undercurrents and realities. A number of issues will be discussed, based on opinions of international analysts as well as the speaker’s own experience from his personal observations during recent months in Cairo.

Demetrius A M .-A. Floudas has been advising the Egyptian Competition Authority in Cairo since September 2012. He has presented his analyses of the topic in a number of countries, providing his assessment of the unfolding situation in Egypt. Demetrius Floudas is a Senior Associate of Hughes Hall, a Fellow of the Hellenic Institute of International and Foreign Law and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of International Law of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO-University).

The lecture will be followed by a wine reception

All are warmly invited to attend.

RSVP to Rachel Knight,

Events Officer, Hughes Hall,

University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB1 2EW

Email: events@hughes.cam.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 768244