The Arab Spring ― Will It Lead to Democratic Transitions?

Nearly two years since it first erupted in Tunisia, the popular uprisings of the "Arab Spring" continue to shake the foundations of decades of authoritarian rule across the Middle East and North Africa. While their precise nature or the political, economic, and strategic implications for the region and the rest of the world have yet to be assessed, there is no doubt that they will be profound.

With deep economic ties to the Middle East, Korea feels the impact of the political changes currently taking place in the region acutely, and the two regions' futures remain deeply intertwined. This timely project on the Arab Spring was initiated to provide The Asan Institute's own assessment of the changes currently taking place in the region and their significant implications for South Korea.

The Asan Institute for Policy Studies is an independent think tank located in Seoul, South Korea, that provides innovative policy solutions and spearheads public discourse on many of the core issues that Korea, East Asia, and the global community face. The goal of the institute is not only to offer policy solutions but also to train experts in public diplomacy and related fields in order to strengthen Korea's capacity to better tackle some of the most pressing problems affecting the country, the region and the world today.

Clement Henry is the Chair of the Political Science Department at the American University in Cairo, Egypt and Emeritus Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Henry previously taught at the University of California, both at Berkeley and Los Angeles, at the University of Michigan, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, and the American University in Beirut. In addition to the politics of international oil, Dr. Henry's research interests include Middle Eastern responses to globalization, banking systems in Islamic Mediterranean countries, Islamic banking, and the development of civil societies in the Arab world. He has spent over 12 years in Algiers, Beirut, Cairo and Rabat and has written, co-authored, or edited 11 books and numerous articles on the region, including Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East (co-edited with Robert Springborg, 2001), The Mediterranean Debt Crescent (1996), The Politics of Islamic Finance (co-edited with Kate Gillespie, 2004), and Oil in the New World Order (1995). He is currently working on a second edition of Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East which presents a dialectical analysis of economic development strategies in the region. Dr. Henry received an MBA from the University of Michigan and his PhD in Political Science from Harvard University.

Jang Ji-Hyang is a Research Fellow and the Director of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Center at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, Korea. She also serves as a Policy Advisor on Middle East political and security issues to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Dr. Jang has previously taught comparative politics, Middle East politics, and the political economy of development at leading Korean universities including Seoul National University, Ewha Woman's University, and the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Her research primarily focuses on the relationship between democracy, capitalism, and globalization in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Muslim World using historical and rational choice institutionalism. Her recent publications include "Islamic Fundamentalism" in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2008), 'Weak State, Weak Civil Society: The Politics of State-Society Relations in the Arab World' in The Journal of International and Area Studies (2009), "The Democratic Implications of Capitalism in the Era of Globalization," in the Review of International Area Studies (2010), and 'Contingency and Diversity in Revolution: How Can We Explain the Middle East Spring? (in Korean)' in the Asan Issue Brief (2011). She has also recently published a Korean translation of Fawaz Gerges' book, Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Asan Institute 2011). Dr. Jang received a B.A. in Turkish Studies and an M.A. in Political Science from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin.