It’s the end of the Arab Spring – and we’ll all pay for it

The carpet rolled out to Bashar al-Assad by the Arab League in Jeddah this week opens a grim new chapter in a darkening world. Over a decade after the Arab Spring, the promise of bringing new and more accountable political forces into power to sweep away long-serving and corrupt despots appears lost. However, recent diplomatic exchanges between Syria and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman send a collective message from the authoritarian regimes that hold sway over the public body and never fully supported the idea of political transitions: “even if we opposed you before, as long as you maintain your grip on power, you will be welcomed back into the fold.” By throwing open the door to Assad’s return, years of diplomatic isolation have fallen away in an instant. The Arab Spring, which swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, was a historic moment of political awakening for the region’s people. While the Arab Spring battles have been won by authoritarian regimes and their supporters, a generation has experienced a political awakening and seen first hand the fragility of these repressive orders.