The Arab World and the Future Socio-Economic Security Concerns of the Post-Unrest Era

After the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia in 2010, a wave of unrest swept the Arab world, which eventually led to revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the overthrow of the government in Yemen and Libya, and the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. While many reasons were offered for these unrests, such as the dependence of governments on foreign powers, the existence of authoritarian governments, suppression of opponents in general and Islamist movements in particular, individual-centered power, etc., the main reason shall be considered the erosion of the social contract. However, after more than a decade, the Arab world has not yet been able to find a suitable mechanism to define a new model of social contract. Now the main question is why Arab governments are not able to reach a final solution in determining the optimal pattern of communication between the government and the society as a new social contract. It seems that lack of dialogue channels between the government and the society, the impossibility of changing the social status of citizens, the implementation of poverty-generating policies, the existence of illegitimate democratic institutions, the social status of women, etc. are among the main obstacle in this regard. Considering the critical situation of these governments, in that normal political factors have turned into socio-economic security concerns due to the inefficiency of the governments, this study intended to investigate factors that have led the Arab world into a security crisis in the framework of the Copenhagen School of Security.