"Arab World" is the only region in the world that lacks democratic values. However, back in December 2010, the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East had faced rapid and remarkable political change under the dynamics of the so-called "Arab Spring". The existing regimes in some of the Arab countries have met the popular opposition that demanded for the changes towards democratization processes, which was perceived by many scholars as a positive factor to the emergence of democracy. Since then, the question of the perspective of democratization of the Arab world has come to the agenda of most political debates. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyze whether democracy is able to develop in Arab region, what are the main challenges to it and whether in the past four years Arab Spring has facilitated the transformation of the political regimes.

Master of Arts / Communications Studies / Charles J. Griffin / The 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions across the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region drew international attention to the collection action phenomenon of revolutions. Despite having a significant impact on today’s globalized world, revolutions have been widely unexplored by social movement rhetorical scholars. This lack of study has prompted scholars to call for the investigation of the role human agency plays during revolutions (Morris, 2000). Rhetorical scholars are well-suited to meet this call but lack a methodological framework to examine revolutions. In responding to Morris’ call and with an interest in adding to the body of rhetorical social movement literature, this thesis asks two research questions. What are the rhetorical characteristics of revolutions? Are revolutions rhetorically distinct from social movements? To answer these questions, this thesis translates Jack Goldstone’s (1998) Divergent View of Social Movements and Revolutions into a rhetorical model for studying revolutions. This adaptation of the political science model relies heavily on Leland Griffin’s (1969) and Charles Stewart’s (1980) models of social movements. Additionally, the adapted model also incorporates James Wilkinson’s (1989) discussion of revolutionary rhetorical functions. The application of the new rhetorical model to the Egyptian Arab Spring reveals revolutions rhetorically develop and function in ways that creates a clear distinction between revolutions from social movements. These findings prompt discussion of methodological and critical implications.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare why Yemen’s democratization process failed while Tunisia’s succeed after the Arab spring. The main question of this paper is: Why did the democratization process in Yemen failed, but succeeded in Tunisia after the Arab Spring emergence in year 2011 based on Diamonds theory? The method that applied to this study is a comparative case study in form of “Most Similar System Design” known as “MSS-design”. After applied four of Larry Diamonds nine factors, the study finally reached the answer of the main question.     The results showed that the absence of historically solid national unity, internally fragmented civil society and the military intervention of Saudi-led coalition was the main factors that caused why Yemen’s democratization process failed. On the other side the strong civil society, diplomatic peaceful pressure and the historical separation of military from the Tunisian political system was the main factors that pushed Tunisia towards democracy.

This thesis examines the turn to conflict in Syria during 2011 to see if it is revolutionary in nature and if so, why has it not succeeded? This thesis aims to analyze the anatomy of Syria's "revolution" in order to determine the causes behind the initial popular mobilization and transition to conflict. Then, further analysis of the essential elements of successful revolutionary movements will be undertaken to reveal what conditions remain unmet for Syria to culminate in a full revolutionary transformation. Special attention will be paid to the revolutionary Opposition itself, since, to date, it has proved unable to generate the power necessary to destroy the old order and rebuild a new system. The significant role of external intervention will also be addressed, since these forces have simultaneously helped cause the conflict, prolong the conflict and prop up the regime. Finally, the negative consequences of undertaking a revolutionary process, especially when left only partially complete, will be highlighted throughout the study. Syria's own "rise of the radicals," has manifested itself in the phenomenon of ISIL or ISIS, which has proven the strongest and most violent Opposition group to emerge from Syria's revolutionary environment.

Through a qualitative analysis of messages posted on the micro-blogging application, Twitter, and qualitative research interviews with people from Egypt and the United States who were active on Twitter during the eighteen day Egyptian Revolution in 2011, this study considers why Dr. Theda Skocpol’s theory of revolution proffered in States and Social Revolutions (1979) does not work in the case of the Egyptian Revolution. Skocpol asserts that a weakening of the state vis-à-vis a dominant class within the state or other states is a necessary precondition for revolution. By examining Twitter as a mechanism through which on-the-ground activists in Egypt were able to circumvent repressive state structures and “jump-scales” to a transnational configuration of resistance, this thesis asserts that emergent technologies complicate Skocpol’s assertion that states must be weakened politically and financially prior to the execution of a successful social revolution. / text

his thesis is a discussion on the affective politics of images, with attention given to the communities and forms of citizenship they create, both digital and real, and their role in contemporary revolutions in the Middle East/North African Region. Employing Ariella Azoulay's (2008) theoretical framework of a civil contract of photography, this thesis locates and examines how a “citizenship of photography” is mobilized through current trends of citizen photojournalism and communication technology. By exploring the citizenship and community building potential of images, digital and real, an account of the revolutionary possibilities of images is formed. Drawing on recent scholarship and theoretical frameworks in the field of visual studies, media studies, and citizenship, this thesis develops a complex narrative of how images become iconic, connect individuals, and become an integral component in contemporary revolutionary change.

This thesis examines the spillover effects of armed conflicts on trade in neighboring countries. The empirical results, obtained by using a rich dataset on trade and conflict for 168 countries during the 1950-2011 period, and thus including the onset of the Arab Spring, show that conflict disrupts the trade of neighboring countries, even though they are not directly involved in any conflict. These spillovers are strongest one year after the onset of the conflict, thus suggesting that the negative effects of regional war on trade are lagged rather than contemporaneous, while they also increase the more violent the conflict is. When conflict in secondary neighbors, defined as countries that are not directly contiguous yet closer than 250km to any country in the trading-pair, is introduced the results are unclear as a majority of the estimates are insignificant and not robust to different model specifications.

MAJOR PROFESSORS: DR. UCHE ONYEBADI & DR. KATHERINE T. FRITH This dissertation was conducted to determine whom the Kuwaiti newspapers indexed in their news reports during the Karamat Watan protests, and how Twitter influenced the indexing process. This study also examined how and why Twitter affected Kuwaiti journalists' agenda building process during their coverage of the protests. For the purpose of this study, the theoretical framework was the indexing model and the agenda building theory. To answer the research questions and hypothesis in this dissertation the researcher used a mixed method approach, comprising the quantitative content analysis of Kuwaiti newspapers and qualitative in-depth interviews with Kuwaiti journalists. The content analysis results show that Kuwaiti newspapers indexed more public views than official views in their coverage of the Karamat Watan protests and the number of non-official sources is larger than the number of official sources in the coverage of the event- driven news. Also, the analysis shows that during the protests the independent newspapers indexed more public views than the semi- official newspapers in Kuwait. Furthermore, the interviews show that Kuwaiti journalists were not unanimous in their opinions regarding the role of twitter in their agenda building process during the protests. While some of them believed that twitter was a good tool that helped them in their coverage of the protests in particular and other events in general, others said that it was hard to be confident about the credibility of the online sources.

During the 2011 Arab Spring protests, the Presidents of Egypt and Tunisia lost their seats as a result of popular protests. While protests occurred in Morocco during the same time, King Mohammed VI maintained his throne. I argue that the Moroccan king was able to maintain his power because of factors that he has because he is a king. These benefits, including dual religious and political legitimacy, additional control over the military, and a political situation that make King Mohammed the center of the Moroccan political sphere, are not available to the region's presidents.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the outcomes of the 2011 Arab Spring from the perspective of regime types within the Middle East and North Africa. The intense year of protest that spread throughout the Arab world had disparate effects between countries which this paper investigates. Utilizing an institutional approach, I separate the Arab world into monarchic and republican systems relying on data provided by the Arab Barometer II and III. Theoretically, I suggest, and find evidence to support, that monarchies were more resistant to the Arab protests because desires for change were not as strong within these countries because of the historical arrangements within these countries.