Jeffrey Martini, Arab Spring: the state of democratic reform in the Middle East

Two years after the revolutions that shook the political landscape of the Arab world, several countries in the region remain unsettled. In Egypt, the transition has been marked by extreme political polarization between the Muslim Brotherhood and its secular competitors. In Libya, militias continue to operate outside of state control. In Syria, the uprising is sliding toward a sectarian conflict. Did the Arab Spring really change that much for the better, as hopes of democracy seem to have faded, or is it still too soon to tell? And how does the tumult in the region affect the interests of the United States? The talk will also focus on nuclear Iran and Syria, and the response from the US, Russia, and the international community. About the Speaker: Jeffrey Martini is a Middle East analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he works on political reform in the Arab world with a specific focus on North Africa. Martini has published on civil-military relations in Egypt, generational divides within the Muslim Brotherhood, changes in the regional security environment, and prospects for democratization in the "Arab Spring" countries. He has spent spent four years living in the Arab world, including three as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and one in Cairo, Egypt, where he was a 2007â€"08 fellow in the CASA Arabic language program. He speaks, reads, and writes modern standard Arabic and speaks Moroccan and Egyptian colloquial. Martini received his B.A. in political science and economics from Middlebury College and his M.A. in Arab studies from Georgetown University.