ECHO of arab spring in western Europe a quantitative analysis [ЭХО АРАБСКОЙ ВЕСНЫ В ЗАПАДНОЙ ЕВРОПЕ ОПЫТ КОЛИЧЕСТВЕННОГО АНАЛИЗА]

Our analysis allows us to talk about two waves of the echo of the Arab spring in Western Europe. The first wave was observed in 2011 and was expressed in the explosive growth of mainly peaceful protests. Taking into account the data on the direct impact of the events of the Arab Spring on the protest activity in Western Europe, the explosive increase in the number of antigovernment demonstrations, riots and general strikes recorded in Western Europe in 2011 can be attributed to the influence of the Arab Spring up to a very considerable extent. In 2012-2014 the protest movement in Western Europe acquired its own logic and continued at a fairly high level, despite the disappearance of the "Arab impulse" - to a large extent under the influence of the second wave of the financial and economic crisis. The second wave of the echo of the Arab spring in Western Europe was observed with a noticeable time lag in 2014-2015. and manifested primarily in the form of rapid growth of terrorist (mainly Islamist) activities. One of the consequences of the Arab Spring was the collapse or sharp weakening of several sufficiently effective Arab authoritarian regimes, which led to a significant improvement in the possibility of the activities of terrorist organizations of various kinds, the rapid growth of their strength, influence and effectiveness of organizational forms - including, which is very important for Western Europe, in cyber space. Terrorist activities penetrated from Arab countries to Western Europe through various channels: refugees, quite effective Internet propaganda of ISIS, jihadists returning to Western Europe, and so on. The second wave was expressed in a certain increase in protest activity, but it radically differed from the protests in 2011, since in the latter case it was a matter of the protests organized mainly by the rightwing forces against the migrant wave, which was generated to a very high degree by the tsunami of the Arab Spring. © 2021 Academic Educational Forum on International Relations. All rights reserved.

Authors
Khokhlov N.1, 2 , Vasiliev A. 3, 4 , Belichenko A.1 , Kirdyankina P.1 , Korotayev A.1, 3
Number of issue
2
Language
Russian
Pages
21-49
Status
Published
Volume
19
Year
2021
Organizations
  • 1 HSE University, Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation
  • 2 Dublin City University, Dublin, D09V209, Ireland
  • 3 Institute for African Studies of the RAS, Moscow, 123001, Russian Federation
  • 4 RUDN University, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation
Keywords
Arab Spring; Diffusion; Internet; Political instability; Protests; Quantitative analysis; Riots; Terrorism; Western Europe
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