Regional Rivalries in the Middle East and the Second Arab Spring

While colonial powers and post-colonial superpowers have long played outsized roles in shaping the Middle East, it is the regional powers -- Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt -- that are increasingly shaping conflicts into triangular and multi-lateral contestations for power and dominance. Religion too plays an outsized role under conditions of sustained authoritarianism and repression. A second Arab Spring has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the first Arab Spring. Sharat G. Lin examines the social forces at work in the diverse countries of the region.​
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Dr. Lin is a research fellow at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, and a former president of the Center. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the Initiative for Equality. He writes on global political economy, the Middle East, South Asia, labor migration, and public health. He has spent many years living in the Middle East witnessing many social upheavals including the Lebanese Civil War and the Arab Spring.

Open to the public

Sponsored by the Arab American Cultural Center of Silicon Valley