Militärt agerande under arabiska våren. En litteraturstudie av Egypten, Syrien och Tunisien

Abstract

During late 2010 and early 2011 many countries in the Middle East and North Africa were subjected to massive popular uprisings against the regimes. The protests that started in Tunisia soon spread over the entire region. Despite developing in a similar way the protests have had different results. With a civil war breaking out in Syria, the military committing a coup in Egypt and Tunisia developing towards democracy. The objective of this study is to understand and interpret the actions taken by the military in the cases; Egypt, Syria and Tunisia. The military actions will be studied using the theoretical concepts; coup proofing, coup triggering and military defections. The method this study uses is a literature analysis using previous literature as source materials. The conclusions this study makes is that the military in each of the cases acted in their own interests. The Egyptian army choose to abandon the regime since they feared losing their economically privileged position. In Syria the connection between Alawites, the military and the Baath party ensured loyalty from the main part of the Syrian army. Whilst the Tunisian military had nothing to gain from defending the regime. Furthermore the Tunisian military had no privileged position to defend and therefore democracy was no threat.