International Assistance to Arab Spring Transitions

Zaid al-Ali examines the action of international actors— especially those with ties to the United Nations—during the transitions in Libya and Yemen. He paints a rather depressing picture of international organizations with no genuine roadmaps and no sound analyses of the countries where they operated. Individuals who happened to be in charge of UN missions (sometimes more or less by chance) were left to act according to their own preferences and biases. Though the international community was not responsible for the collapse of the democratic process in Yemen and Libya, it was not capable of preventing it.