From the Arab Spring to ISIS: The Upheavals in the Middle East and What They Mean for Israel

When

7 p.m., Dec. 8, 2014

Asher Susser Ph.D., The Stein Family Professor of Modern Israel Studies, The University of Arizona, The Arizona Center for Judaic StudiesBeginning with the Arab Spring this talk will offer an alternative explanation to the democracy/ autocracy paradigm, arguing that the Arab Spring was actually a clash between the forces of modernity and tradition and an outgrowth of the profound socio-economic crisis that faces much of the Arab world today. Against the background of a modernization process that has had rather limited success the younger generation across the region has been overcome by an increasing sense of hopelessness as it looks toward the future. The pervasive sense of crisis has...