Arab Spring in North Africa: An Analysis of Foreign Influence and Revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia

Lecture Center 12

This paper examines the role foreign influence had on the outcomes of the 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Foreign influence primarily came from the US, European states such as the UK and France, and Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE. Influence includes but is not limited to financial assistance, diplomatic pressure, and in Libya’s extreme case military intervention. Outcome of the revolution is determined by examining the state of each government before and after the 2011 revolutions. This paper studies why each of these three states had different levels of foreign influence throughout their transitions from longstanding dictatorships to the current governments that run each state today. It also studies why Tunisia, which had very little foreign influence, developed into a free and democratic state while Egypt and Libya ended up with another autocratic regime after many states played a role in their revolutions. It explains that the pressure the West faced to overthrow autocrats Qaddafi and Mubarak along with the lack of desire to engage in a third national building enterprise led to an overthrow of the original governments without a foundation to develop a new government. This along with the Gulf States’ interest in increasing their regional power led to the failure of both revolutions as Egypt returned to an autocracy and Libya turned into a failed state with multiple governments at war. While Tunisia, who had little foreign intervention successfully transitioned from an autocracy into a free and democratic state.