January 2013

The Security Implications of the Arab Spring

This paper focuses on the implications that the ‘Arab spring’ has for the security of states and individuals in Europe and North America as core parts of the ‘West’. It first discusses potential challenges which emanate from the foreign policies of Arab governments that in different ways respond to protests and the processes of political change that they have initiated. It then discusses challenges that directly emanate from the continued or increasing weakness of the Arab states that manifests itself in terms of state capacities including the monopoly of the means of coercion, policy delivery and related discontent, and even state disintegration. It argues that diverging interests and concerns between the ‘West’ and the new Arab governments are manageable if analyzed independently of received wisdoms.

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