The Arab Counter-Revolution and Its Jihadi Legacy

A Conversation with Jean-Pierre Filiu and Alfred Stepan

In his disturbing and timely From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2015) Jean-Pierre Filiu lays bare the strategies and tactics employed by the Middle Eastern autocracies that set out to crush the democratic uprisings of the ‘Arab Revolution.’ In pursuit of these goals, they turned to shadowy intelligence agencies and internal security arms of the so-called ‘Deep State,’ as well as to street gangs and militias to enforce their will. They discredited and split their opponents while boosting Salafi-Jihadi groups such as Islamic State. They also released hardline Islamists from prison and secretly armed and funded them. The Arab counter-revolution surprised most observers, who underestimated its leaders’ ferocious readiness to literally burn down their countries in order to cling to absolute power.

In English. Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.

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