When the Arab Spring came across our television screens in 2011 we all thought that democracy was finally arriving in the Middle East. No more dictatorships and unrepresentative kings - and no more Islamist terrorism (the deaths of Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden in May of that year and of US-Yemeni jihadi ideologue Anwar al -Aulaqi merely confirmed our confidence). How wrong we were - but why? Borealis talks to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of Valens Global on why many over-analysed the importance of these events.
When the Arab Spring came across our television screens in 2011 we all thought that democracy was finally arriving in the Middle East. No more dictatorships and unrepresentative kings - and no more Islamist terrorism (the deaths of Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden in May of that year and of US-Yemeni jihadi ideologue Anwar al -Aulaqi merely confirmed our confidence). How wrong we were - but why? Borealis talks to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of Valens Global on why many over-analysed the importance of these events.