Revisiting the Arab Spring in Bahrain

Speaker: Abdulhadi Khalaf, Lund University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE In this seminar, Abdulhadi Khalaf revisits the Bahraini trajectory of the Arab Spring. He examines the consequences of competition between moderate opposition networks and their diverse radical flanks. The paper argues that the positive roles of the radical flanks include developing new political opportunities and attracting new participants to join the movement. These, in the case of Bahrain, have outweighed the commonly cited negative outcomes, such fragmenting the movement and/or exposing it to manipulation by one or more of the protagonists in the ongoing contention. Recorded on 8 December 2015. This event forms part of the Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA event series. Image Credit: Flickr, Chris Price. Flag of Bahrain.