Foreign policy: the Arab Spring changed everything in Europe | News from the Arab world



[ad_1]

Europe has become a different continent from what it was at home and in its foreign policy before 2011; For reasons directly linked to the Arab Spring revolutions in the neighborhood.

it was answered in an article It was published on the US site “Foreign Policy” by writer Anshal Vohra, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, who attributed much of what is happening in Europe as Britain’s exit from the European Union, the change in foreign policy of European countries and their pacification of tyrannical rulers in Arab countries, and the emergence of the far right on the continent On the impact of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Brexit and the populists

He adds that Brexit was in part a reaction to the refugee crisis, sparked by the Syrian uprising and the civil war that followed, and that populist political parties across Europe have capitalized on growing fears of “the Islam and extremism “.

He says European foreign policy has changed dramatically through its growing adherence to the new dictators, who have emerged on the continent’s southern borders, without even the fig leaf of liberal mores they once sparked, noting that the revolutions of the n it not only failed to make Arab countries more stable; It also made European countries less stable.

authoritarian stability

After 10 years of Arab uprisings, he said, some Europeans are returning to the idea of ​​authoritarian stability, as evidenced by the growing membership of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt.

The author quotes Julian Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, as saying that the Arab Spring has offered an opportunity to reshape developments on the ground; But Europe failed to achieve this, adding that European attention increasingly wanes on security and immigration challenges as self-confidence has diminished in any ability to push the system. policy of the Arab region in a more positive direction.

In 2015, as hundreds of thousands of people boarded boats and spent months and years in cramped camps to find safety, European populists, until then on the fringes of European politics, took saw their opportunity. They exploited the fears of many Europeans that their jobs would be handed over to refugees or that the presence of people from markedly different cultures would change their way of life.

maybe forever

Hostility towards refugees stems from Islamophobia, which runs deep in the minds of many Europeans. However, the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and a series of terrorist attacks by members or supporters of the group in Europe, have helped the populists even more. Immigration has heightened fears of attacks by “extremists” and changed the face of European politics, perhaps forever.

He noted that daily conversations at coffee tables in Europe, even in cities that are centers of liberal ideas like Paris and Berlin, have often turned xenophobic.

More politics



[ad_2]
Source link