Episode 9, March 2023: “Democratic Yearning” | Hesham Sallam on the Continuing Echoes of the Arab Uprisings
Dr. Hesham Sallam of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University discusses his new co-edited volume, Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World: Regimes, Oppositions, and External Actors after the Spring (University of Michigan Press, 2022, with Lisa Blaydes and Amr Hamzawy), with POMED Deputy Director for Research Amy Hawthorne. Foreign Affairs praised the book as “an unusually strong collection . . . showcasing writing by some of the best scholars working on politics in the Arab world today.”
More than a decade after pro-democracy uprisings swept North Africa and the Middle East, Dr. Sallam challenges conventional wisdom that the so-called Arab Spring failed. Despite heightened repression and myriad challenges facing local democracy movements, “the popular yearning for more accountable, more responsive, more inclusive, more just governance is still alive,” Dr. Sallam argues.
This interview is part of POMED’s video series, “Between the Lines,” featuring interviews with authors of recent publications that explore rights and governance issues across the Middle East and North Africa. To be notified of future episodes, subscribe to POMED’s YouTube channel.
