Analyzing the various factors that strengthened the Hashemite regime's stability during the spread of chaos caused by the Arab Spring is deemed important; even though the wave of the Arab Spring has ended, Jordan's economy is still suffering and the public is still demanding reform nonetheless, the Hashemite regime is untouched. This research will analyze the regime-society bond in light of the Arab Uprising that has undoubtedly assisted in the survival of the kingdom by creating a framework by which protesters unconsciously adhered to that entailed calls for political and economic reform to be initiated by the existing regime. Furthermore, the Hashemite's most powerful allies made sure to provide military and financial assistance to ensure the regime and the kingdoms remain secure and stable. However, such aid did not come without a price; it was critical for the Hashemite regime to balance between maintaining its coordinated strategies with its allies to maintain the close relations and maintaining its sovereignty and the foreign policies that serve national interests.

Illegal immigration is one of the current problems that occupy the European agenda. With the beginning of the revolutionary movements called 'the Arab Spring' in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe has faced massive uncontrolled migration waves. In this period, the asylum applications in European countries have broken a record in the history of the EU. This situation has impelled the European Union and its member states to take certain measures. However, political disagreements were observed over some of the measures taken by the EU. In light of these developments, this thesis will focus on illegal immigration movements from the Middle East and North Africa region to Europe right after the beginning of the Arab Spring (in other words from at the end of 2010 to now). In this context, this master's thesis aims to give the immigration and asylum policies of the European Union aiming to prevent these illegal immigration waves and to evaluate the political positions of the Visegrad countries during this period.

The purpose of this thesis is to try to understand the moderation process of the Tunisian Islamic political party Ennahda between the years of 2011-2016. This case is studied within the context of the democratisation process that took place in Tunisia, in the five years after the Arab spring and the idea that political Islam might provide a path to democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. The theoretical framework chosen for understanding this process was in form of a theory about under which circumstances religious political parties politically moderate. The method used was a qualitative content analysis. The analysis was conducted by dividing the chapters into thematic topics that emerged out of the material with the framework then being applied to those themes. The research found that the theory provided theoretical understanding for why the Ennahda Movement became more moderate, especially when looking at factors regarding political entrepreneurship. However, other factors such as a dedication to democratic values, non-violence, and a willingness to change throughout its history, also proved important in the case of moderation within the Ennahda Movement.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and describe the effects of the Middle East policies of Turkey and the European Union on mutual relations between the two actors with particular focus on the Arab Spring and its repercussions on regional stability and international relations. The key components of Turkey's foreign policy are analyzed from the perspectives of EU-Turkey relations and political stances of Turkey and the European Union towards the Middle East. Analysis of Turkey's and the EU's responses to the uprisings and their impact on the situation in the region is an important part of the study. The conclusions of this study confirm that the strategic cooperation between the EU and Turkey and the necessity of compensating each other's relative weaknesses in order to achieve similar foreign policy goals in the concerned region after the Arab Spring led to a rapprochement between the two actors. However, a direct influence of this rapprochement on the negotiation process regarding the future Turkish membership in the EU has not yet been observed. Key words Turkey, the European Union, Turkey-EU relations, negotiation process, the Middle East, MENA, foreign politics, the Arab Spring…

To what extent do participatory civil society dynamics, rooted in self-assertive social capital, help explain the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011? How do pro-democratic Arab attitudes matter in promoting elite-challenging collective actions? Does Islam support or hinder elite-challenging, self-assertive social capital? To answer these questions, this study systematically examines the variation in self-assertive (emancipative) social capital in Egypt and Jordan from a comparative perspective. By using emancipative social capital theory, this article embarks on an individual-level quantitative analysis derived from the World Values Survey database to explore the empirical nexus between pro-democratic attitudes, elite-challenging actions, and Islamic values in order to partly explain comparatively high-intensive and persistent uprisings in Egypt and relatively low-intensive and less persistent demonstrations in Jordan. The findings offer critical insights in understanding the social capital dimension of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and contribute new clues about empirical interactions between Islamic resurgence and civil society dynamics in the Muslim world.

To what extent do participatory civil society dynamics, rooted in self-assertive social capital, help explain the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011? How do pro-democratic Arab attitudes matter in promoting elite-challenging collective actions? Does Islam support or hinder elite-challenging, self-assertive social capital? To answer these questions, this study systematically examines the variation in self-assertive (emancipative) social capital in Egypt and Jordan from a comparative perspective. By using emancipative social capital theory, this article embarks on an individual-level quantitative analysis derived from the World Values Survey database to explore the empirical nexus between pro-democratic attitudes, elite-challenging actions, and Islamic values in order to partly explain comparatively high-intensive and persistent uprisings in Egypt and relatively low-intensive and less persistent demonstrations in Jordan. The findings offer critical insights in understanding the social capital dimension of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and contribute new clues about empirical interactions between Islamic resurgence and civil society dynamics in the Muslim world.

This thesis paper set out to investigate the research puzzle of why some nonviolent conflicts lead to democratisation while others do not, as well as what explains this variation. A time series, cross-case comparison between the Arab Spring revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt was conducted exploring the link between organisational structure of prominent organisations participating in the movement and the success or failure of the countries’ later democratisation efforts. The hypothesis formulated claims that formal organisational structures are more likely to lead to successful democratisation. After the empirical material was collected, the results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that there is a link between organisational structure and successful or failed democratisation via the mediating variables of clear leadership and the presence of durable organisations. Afterwards, the limitations of the study are discussed. To strengthen the existing body of literature, potential avenues for future research are presented.

Research on the Arab spring has indicated that the failure of democratic consolidation in post-Arab spring countries was, in part, due to economic insecurity. A conclusion that seems to be in line with the general literature on threat and its connection to authoritarian value-shifts. Yet, scholars in the fields of collective action and political socialisation have also demonstrated how events like the Arab spring can be incredibly influential in shaping political values, primarily among younger populations. Raising the question of whether formative experience with the Arab spring could have resulted in a more democratically inclined youth-cohort that would be more resilient to the authoritarian effects of economic insecurity. To answer this question, this master's thesis conducted a cohort analysis on five countries found in at least four waves of the Arab Barometer and tested four hypotheses generated by the previous question. The thesis did not see any evidence indicating that this Arab spring youth-cohort would be any more democratic than other cohorts. Furthermore, the cohort was also not more likely than other cohorts, to stave off the authoritarian effects of economic insecurity. Contrary to previous research, this thesis did not see a correlation between economic insecurity and authoritarianism in all countries studied. Potentially, indicating how contextual the connection actually is, and demonstrating the need for future studies on the topic to be conducted in already authoritarian contexts.

In the context of debates about the causal role that new media technologies did or didn’t play in the 2011 Arab uprisings, my dissertation conversely examines some of the diverse and contradictory ways new media technologies have been used and their power envisaged during revolution and war in Syria since 2011. Exploring various contexts of use, I consider how the same technologies have been understood to ground divergent political projects, to produce contradictory affective responses, and to mint antithetical epistemic values. I ask how technologies come to be seen as answers to social and political problems; and I give an account of the social and political questions asked of a technology as it moves through geographies, institutional settings, or historical moments. By investigating the infrastructural, epistemological, and affective dimensions of the Syrian revolution and war and the work of its media activists I develop a conceptual analysis of political possibilities and their foreclosure in Syria over the past decade. My dissertation draws on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Lebanon, France and Germany (2018-2020) among communities of humanitarian, media and digital forensic activists involving two different but connected things. First, following activists as they move, across borders, in and out of organizations, and in and out of activism. Second, following images as they move, also across borders, in and out of contexts of use, and in and out of use. These two movements happen at different intensities and speeds, and with different levels of friction, marked by the politics of access to Syria. Based on interviews with a range of actors invested in the use of new media technologies, I give an account of how and why Syrian activists persevered with their political projects and technological practices despite having little hope of success. Second, amidst widespread scholarly interest in humanitarian intervention, I argue that the governmental practice of stabilisation, despite congruences with the practices of human rights video and forms of humanitarian intervention, has served as a distinct form of intervention in the wake of the ‘War on Terror’. Third, amidst widespread arguments that the Syrian uprising was a failed democratic revolution, I argue that the uprising should be considered on the basis of its central demand for dignity, while tracing the career of the concept in a debate amongst Syrian intellectuals over the “right to a dignified image”. Finally, by participating in a digital forensic investigation, I give an account of the legal, technical and political hurdles that would have to be overcome to turn open source content into legally felicitous evidence in a possible future war crimes tribunal.

The political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 created a new political order in the region. This research is aimed at examining how political trust has developed from 2011- 2022 in Tunisia and Egypt. It also aims to understand which variables affect political trust and whether the two countries differ. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the field by using the most recent data up until 2022. The research has been conducted with a comparative quantitative method, using Arab Barometer survey data. The results of the study results align with previous scholars’ results, the political trust declined in both countries after the Arab Spring but the most recent results from Tunisia show that the trust is slightly recovering. The results also indicate that the institutional theories of political trust are the more relevant theories when it comes to explaining political trust in the studied countries.