Friday, January 23, 2015

Arab Sprung

With the resignation of President Hadi, I believe that means that every head of state that came to power because of the Arab Spring is now out of power. Mohammad Morsi was deposed as leader of Egypt in 2013. Beji Caid Essebsi defeated the incumbent Moncef Marzouki and became President of Tunisia late last year. And Libya, well, Libya has had several transitional heads of state since Qadhafi was deposed, none of which were ever really fully in control.

Then again, that fact doesn't really mean much, as the reasons that the original post-Arab Spring leader left office is different in the different countries. Essebsi's victory in the 2014 election followed by a peaceful exchange of power suggests that the Arab Spring succeeded in that country. What happened in Egypt, Libya, and now Yemen suggests that it failed (as it also failed in places where the government wasn't completely overturned like Syria and Bahrain).