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Kindle Single
- May 16, 2011
Understanding the
Egyptian Protests:
Headwaters of the Arab
Spring
From Morley Winograd and
Michael D. Hais
On Tuesday, January 25,
2011, the leaders of the
Egyptian protest group,
April 6 Youth Movement
(A6Y), led hundreds of
thousands of protesters
chanting, “Bread,
Freedom, Human Rights”
into Cairo’s Tahrir
Square. The  events
that followed completely
surprised the economic
elites gathering for the
annual World Economic
Forum meeting in Davos,
Switzerland. Few put
much stock in the
importance of the
actions of young people
in Egypt until the
protests overturned that
country’s entrenched
power structure in a
matter of weeks.
Why were the leaders of
the global economy so
surprised by the events
that have come to be
known as the Arab
Spring, and why did they
feel so threatened by
them? Why did the
protester’s demands
spread so quickly
throughout the Arab
world after decades of
suppression by
autocratic regimes?
The answer to these
questions lies in an
understanding of the
complex interaction
between technological
and generational change,
fueled by a hunger for a
better future, that
continues to be the
underlying source of the
institutional
instability and that
will reshape the entire
region.
In a new Kindle
Single,
Headwaters of the Arab
Spring,
Morley Winograd and Mike
Hais explain how these
intertwined forces are
destined to undermine
institutions and leaders
in every corner of the
world.
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