Message from the Editor

Welcome for the final issue of MA for 2011. This month's issue looks at Democracy and the Arab Spring. As one of the major events of 2011, the Arab Spring represented a hopeful moment for democrats in the Middle East. However, as the months rolled on, the Arab Spring has settled into mixed results. While largely successful in their uprising against the established regimes in these countries, focus has now turned to the questions whether democracy will be the ultimate result.

This month Katherine Tranter and Katherine Hauser explore the role of women’s movements in the Arab Spring uprising, as well the remaining challenges for women’s rights in Arab world. These articles highlight some important progress that has been made in the region, but that there is still much more work to be done. Meanwhile, Zeb Leonard highlights the state of Iran’s nuclear enrichment, examining the possibility of current medical nuclear isotopes being enriched to weapons-grade level, a worrying prospect given current turmoil in the region.

Contemporary Debate examines the relationship between values and democracy, with Andrew Romanin exploring how the underlying values of societies shape their transition to democracy, highlighting the significance of these issues for the Arab Spring. Nicholas Clarke also explores the different ways in which ‘democracy’ is interpreted, focussing on the emergence of the ‘superficial democrat’ in Chinese political culture. These pieces suggest that caution is necessary when deploying the reforms necessary to make states more democratic, and that a one-size-fits-all approach to democratic institutions are likely to lead to some ugly unintended consequences.

Meanwhile Amal Varghese and Benjamin Moles paint a more pessimistic picture, highlighting the reassertion of control by established authorities, with any democratic upheavals leading to the likely emergence of populist Islamism replacing less democratic, but more secular and pluralist regimes. Meanwhile Sharna de Lacy highlights the ways in which the Arab Spring has led to an increasing role for the military in Egypt’s economic and political life, making it unlikely that Egypt’s polity will escape the control of the military.

Is the right way to approach the Arab spring a first step that needs to be pushed in favour of future democratic reforms, a cautious rumbling that needs to be treated cautiously by ensuring that Arab states have democratic values as well as institutions, or an uprising against existing regimes that will be simply replaced with different authoritarian rulers? Only time will tell.

This month MA speaks with HE James Michel, the President of the Seychelles, about the role of the Commonwealth as well as developmental challenges of small nations. We also interview Natalie Sambhi and Nic Jenzen-Jones, who speak about their experiences as writing and publishing analysis on defence and security issues, as well as their analysis of contemporary security issues.

Monthly Access will be taking a break for summer, with the next issue to be published in March 2012. The topic for the March issue is Separatism and Self-Determination. We welcome submissions of between 400 to 600 words on these topics, or any other issues in international affairs. The deadline for submission for the March Issue is 23rd February 2012.

Ghazi Ahamat has recently completed his studies in Economics, Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.

The Monthly Access team is:

Editor-in-Chief: Ghazi Ahamat

Deputy Editor (Interviews and Submissions):  Evan Ritli

Deputy Editor (Contemporary Debate): Priya Wakhlu

Global Snapshot Columnists: Rachel Hankey and Richard Griffin

Interviewers:  Amal Varghese and Roselina Press

Contemporary Debate Columnists: Andrew Romanin, Sharna de Lacy, Katherine Tranter and Nick Clarke

ACCESS Event Reporter: Marla Pascual

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