Ali SARIHAN
Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi (İSMUS), VI/1 (2021), s. 1-17
Understanding the military behavior in the Middle East and North Africa requires a comprehensive approach that explains and also connects the history of military behavior with the recent developments within the region. That paper provides a chronological framework that explains different military behaviors in history and during the time of social upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa. This study claims that the military has always been an important part of the politics in this region. Before the 2010-2011 Arab Uprisings, the military was the mainstay of the autocratic regimes. However, during the 2010-2011 Arab Uprisings, public protests achieved to get the military support in some cases. The protests again proved how the army’s involvement shaped the course of the mass uprisings and the end of the authoritarian regimes. So, the military changed, still change, and will probably continue to change the course of the politics in the Middle East and North Africa. However, this paper does not claim that military power is the only power that rules the states alone. But rather it claims that the power controls and shapes most of the states and their regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.
