Understanding The Arab Spring: Public Opinion and the Roots of Revolution in the Arab World

With
Craig Charney
President of Charney Research

Moderated by
Anthony Cordesman
Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, CSIS

What was distinctive about the five Arab countries – Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, and now Syria – where regimes have been overthrown or are tottering?  Why do the Gulf states seem free from the winds of change?  What are the common sentiments that have fueled protest and democratic demands across the Arab world since the start of 2011?  What has been the role of social media and satellite TV? 

Craig Charney will offer some answers to these questions, based on a review of polls by his firm and others from across the Middle East.  He took Egypt’s first poll after the fall of Mubarak and several more since, and has also polled in Yemen, Libya, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. 
Dr Charney’s New York-based firm, Charney Research, has polled in the Middle East for USAID, the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute, the International Peace Institute, Columbia University, and the Center for International Private Enterprise, among others.