IntroductionIn the year 2011, the world was shocked by events that sparked a series of major uprisings throughout the Middle East, a region known for its instability, fiercely dictatorial governments, exotic imagery, violence, and oil.  The 2011 Arab spring was a start from a series of protests in countries of repressive and autocratic form of governments, which have been affected with great unemployment, rising living costs, low education and low human rights. The 2011 Arab Springs had extensive implications in the Middle East where countries went into a process of change. From peaceful protests, into violence and armed insurgency and full scale civil war and eventually the breakdown of civil society giving the rise of terrorist elements of the armed insurgency, who actively opposed the governments and who were prepared to use violence i.e. terrorist means. The countries which will discussed, in the context of the 2011 Arab spring, will include the following: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Some of the key features will include evidence of the process of democracy. Institutions established to bring about change. Evidence of change from protest and concessions made to the people. However there are also other arguments to consider relating to the 2011 Arab springs which include the foreign intervention during the 2011 Arab spring, the rise and support of terrorist activities in the 2011 Arab spring.The 2011 Arab Spring began in Tunisia, also known as the Jasmine Revolution there was major civil unrest across the country with street by street battles and mass demonstrations taking place in Tunisia, ‘On January 14 a state of emergency was declared, and Tunisian state media reported that the government had been dissolved and that legislative elections would be held in the next six months. That announcement also failed to quell unrest, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepped down as president’, leaving the country in January 2011. Turkey thereafter had free and democratic elections. They saw the victory of a coalition of the Islamist Ennahda Party with this was one example of a country where free and democratic elections meant a government elected from its people. Also all political prisoners were released and the ban on political parties lifted.  In Tunisia even though its revolution wasconsidered a success it is notable that the country has the most fighters ofIsil and other various ‘rebel groups in Syria and Iraq taking part in terrorismto uproot the government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Libyan ArabJamahiriya’ (THE SOUFAN GROUP, 2017).In Syria protests calling for the resignation of President. Bashar al-Assad broke out in southern Syria in mid-March 2011 and spread through the country. The Assad regime responded with a brutal crackdown against protesters, drawing condemnation from international leaders and human rights groups. A leadership council for the Syrian opposition formed in Istanbul in August called the Free Syrian Army. However in Syria  the little hope for democracy and concessions made my President Basher Al-Assad has turned into a full scale Civil war leading to the deaths of more than half a million people in Syria with numerous proxy wars and more recently have led to the rise of the Salifi movement ISIS. At the beginning of 2012 two prominent Salafi armed groups emerged: ‘Jabhat al-Nusra and Kata’ib Ahrar al-Sham (the Freemen of Syria Battalions) both of which embraced the language of jihad and called for an Islamic state based on Salafi principles’ (International Crisis Group, 2012). LibyaInLibya from 1 September 1969 the ‘Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC)headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution andproclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto: freedom, socialism,and unity’ (Michigan State University, 1994 – 2016). The Leader Muammar Gaddafiwould rule Libya for 42 years. Under Gaddafi, law number seventy-one of 1972banned all political parties and opposition groups. Dissent was punishable bydeath, and in fact political opponents were assassinated both domestically andabroad.Libyahad the highest Human Development Index, the lowest infant mortality and thehighest life expectancy in all of Africa. Even though, Libya was considered asa “brutal dictatorship” by the west, it is clear that Libya was a prosperousnation with free education and health care and laws that protect discriminationand violence against woman as defined in the sources by the (Us Department ofState, 2017). Before the 2011 Arab spring al Qaeda and militant terrorism didnot exist in the country. Libya was a peaceful nation which did not threat touse Weapons of Mass destruction nor other means to destabilise Europe byterrorist means.Theevents in Libya turned from protests into a full scale civil war between theNational Transition council and loyal forces of the Libyan armed forces. The Foreign intervention in the 2011 Arab Spring Foreign intervention in the2011 Arab spring was a pivotal moment during the Libyan Civil war. The UnitedNation Security Council on the 11th March 2011 passed on aresolution to implement a no fly zone. The resolution implemented by NATO wasto prevent the harming of civilians in Libya and to implement and democraticresolution in Libya (United Nations Security council, 2011). However during theLibyan Civil war there wasn’t any consideration of whom NATO was going to helpmilitarily.  The parliamentary Foreignaffairs committee stated in the recent report that ‘the possibility thatmilitant extremist groups would attempt to benefit from. The rebellion shouldnot have been the preserve of hindsight. Libyan connections with transnationalmilitant extremist groups were known before 2011, because many Libyans hadparticipated in the Iraq insurgency and in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda’. (TheForeign Affairs Committee, 2016).Movement towards Democracy In Many opposition participants called for a return to the constitution and a transition to multi-party democracy most notably in Tunisia and Libya however with the use of violent means which the effect could count as the use of terrorism to the government in charge. As violence increased security forced ordered to shoot with impunity defected. The Arab uprisings were less a cry for democracy than a demand for better governance and improved economic performance. Few citizens across the region directly attributed to democracy itself the changes, good or bad, that the uprisings brought. By this measure at least, the uprisings and the events that followed did little to dampen the overall demand for democracy in the region as a whole. Citizens have continued to believe, as they did before the protests, that democracy is the best form of government and that the regimes in their countries have a long way to go to become fully democratic. Tunisia, the place where the Arab uprisings began and the site of the greatest progress toward democracy since then, represents an exception to this broader trend in public opinion. Since the Jasmine Revolution of 2011, Tunisians have grown increasingly concerned about the effects of democracy and have become less likely to say that this system is suitable for their country. Despite these trends, however, the vast majority of Tunisians continue to say that democracy, whatever its problems, is the best system of government for their country. As the Tunisian case suggests, Arab publics are responding mainly to developments at home rather than to wider regional factors. Thus Egyptians, unlike Tunisians, have been disinclined to hold democracy responsible for their country’s rocky political course, and instead have blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam. This decision about where to place blame in turn reflects factors specific to the political situation as it has unfolded in Egypt since dictator Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign in February 2011.In Tunisia, there is clearpromise in the areas of freedom of association and freedom of expression, andmedia freedom in particular. A fairly open field for the exercise of theserights has emerged, in stark contrast to the deeply repressive environment fornews media and civic groups under the Ben Ali regime. Civil society and tradeunions since January 14, 2011, have operated with a degree of openness andindependence that was unimaginable before that date. In addition, spiritedpolitical jockeying took place ahead of October’s constituent assemblyelections and the elections themselves proved to be open, competitive, andpluralistic. But these gains do not mean that Tunisia has already cementedinstitutional reforms in the media, civil society, or electoral politics.Instead, they represent a promising early advance toward a culture oftransparency and pluralism that must be safeguarded with concrete legal andregulatory changes. If citizens, political leaders, and other influentialfigures make the right choices, they can fortify Tunisia’s nascent democracyagainst the challenges it will inevitably face.In Egypt, the months sinceMubarak’s ouster have revealed a much darker outlook for reform. As of the endof October, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had resorted to familiarmethods of repression, including severe curbs on the activities of civilsociety and independent media, and foment of sectarian tensions for politicalgain. The SCAF’s extension and expansion in September 2011 of the country’soppressive emergency law, a hallmark of the Mubarak era, sent a chilling signalto those working toward democratic governance. The scope of the law—nominallyrestricted in 2010 to narcotics and terrorism offenses—was widened to includelabor strikes, traffic disruptions, and the spread of false information.Egypt could achieve almostimmediate progress by opening and defending the space for civil society and thenews media, while ensuring fair, open, and transparent elections in November2011. But if these first-tier reforms in the areas of free expression andassociation are not enacted and are prevented from growing roots, then the moredifficult overhauls of the judiciary, security services, and other stateinstitutions are far less likely to follow or succeed.Tunisians favoured givingreligious leaders a say over government decisions in 2011, this percentage heldsteady during the transition. In 2013, the share of Tunisians agreeing withthis statement was 24 percent, suggesting that support for political Islam mayeven have gone up a bit. Meanwhile, trust in Ennahda, the main Islamist party,also stayed fairly stable, dipping only five points to 35 percent. Takentogether, these results imply that the attitudes of Tunisians toward therelationship between religion and politics and the country’s main Islam-basedmovement changed little following the transition. Differences between theTunisian and Egyptian transitions likely explain the contrasting effects onpublic opinion. In Tunisia, Ennahda won only a plurality of NationalConstituent Assembly seats and formed a weak “troika” government with twosecular parties. Although feeble and unsteady, this arrangement fostered anenvironment of democratic compromise and relative inclusiveness. Rather thanblame Ennahda or its ideology for transition-era travails, Tunisians updatedtheir beliefs about the costs and benefits of a democratic system. In Egypt,Islamists won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections and narrowly wonthe presidency. In November 2012, President Mohamed Morsi decreed that he wouldbe above the law pending the ratification of a new constitution. Soonthereafter, the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly finalized a draftconstitution with no support from secular or minority voices. The Arab uprisings not only sparked majortransformations in some countries, such as Egypt and Tunisia, but also spurredlimited reforms in others, among them Algeria, Jordan, and Morocco. Despite allthese changes, however, publics across the region in 2013 tended to rate theirregimes as no more or less democratic than had been the case in 2011.Tunisians, for example, had experienced free and fair elections but were stillno more likely to say that their regime was democratic (BBC, 2017). EUannounced its support for the democratic progress in Tunisia and Egypt, whichwas followed by further unrest in several other Arab states, potentiallyleading to radical changes of Middle East polity. An affirmative wording becamepart of official EU documents, as it for instance could be seen when in 2011the EU launched its renewed European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), stating thatthe “EU needs to rise to the historical challenges in our neighborhood.” Thisnew version of the ENP was characterized by two significant elements. First ofall, the new policy allowed for an increased differentiation regarding thelinks between each ENP-partner and the EU as to cater to the needs andaspirations of the specific Mediterranean state. The principle of ‘more formore’ was the second central pillar of the reformulated ENP, together with theopposite, a principle of ‘less for less’. The latter signaled that the EUintended to downgrade its relations with regimes, which violated human rights,including making use of targeted sanctions.The Algerian governmentremoved its incongruous 19-year state of emergency. Oman’s elected legislaturegot the authority to pass laws. Sudan’s war criminal president promised not toseek reselection. All the oil-rich states committed to wealth redistribution orthe extension of welfare services. But real-world politics is not just whathappens offline. A classically trained social scientist trying to explain theArab Spring would point to statistics on the youth bulge, declining economicproductivity, rising wealth concentration, high unemployment, and low qualityof life. These explanatory factors are often part of the story of socialchange. It does not diminish their important causal contribution to the ArabSpring to also say that digital media shaped events and outcomes: digital mediawere singularly powerful in getting out protest messages, in driving thecoverage by mainstream broadcasters, in connecting frustrated citizens, and inhelping them realize that they shared grievances and could act together to dosomething about their situation.Evidence of NATO Support of Terrorism during the 2011 Arab SpringThere is significant evidenceto suggest that the Arab Spring in Libya, Syria and Tunisia were one of themain reasons to the rise of terrorist activities thorough the Middle East withcriminal gang’s acquiring large scale military grade equipment from NATO andwho were benefiting from the large scale breakdown of law and order and alsothe collapse of the criminal justice system. Some of the criminal and terroristactivities included: “people trafficking, arbitrary detention, torture,unlawful killing, indiscriminately attack, abduction, bombings and rape” (TheForeign Affairs Committee, 2016).‘The U.S. supported opposition which overthrew Libya’s Gadaffi was largely comprised of Al Qaeda terrorists’. (Brad Hoff, 2017).According to a 2007 report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Centre, ‘the Libyan city of Benghazi was one of Al Qaeda’s main headquarters and bases for sending Al Qaeda and fighters of the Salafi-Jihadist movement’ into Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen during and before the start of the 2011 Arab Spring who wanted to destabilise and overthrow the governments in those countries (The Combating Terrorism centre, 2017). The Hindustan Times reported in March 2011: ‘There is no question that Al Qaeda’s Libyan franchise, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is a part of the opposition,’ Bruce Riedel, former CIA officer and a leading expert on terrorism, told Hindustan Times (Yashwant Raj, 2017). It has always been Gaddafi’s greatest enemy and its main stronghold is Benghazi. It is also reported that Al Qaeda flags were flown in the Benghazi courthouse once Gaddafi was toppled.Incidentally,Gaddafi was on the verge of invading Benghazi in 2011, 4 years after the WestPoint report cited Benghazi as a hotbed of Al Qaeda and Salafi terrorists.Gaddafi claimed – rightly it turns out – that Benghazi was an Al Qaedastronghold and a main source of the Libyan rebellion.  But NATO planes stoppedhim, and protected Benghazi. ‘The White House and senior Congressionalmembers,’ the group wrote in an interim report released Tuesday, ‘deliberatelyand knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terroristorganizations in order to topple a ruler Muammar Gaddafi who hadbeen working closely with the West actively to suppress al-Qaeda (BBC,2017). “Some look at it as treason,” said Wayne Simmons, a former CIA officer whoparticipated in the commission’s research.The Aftermath of the 2011 Arab SpringAsof 2017, it seems that only in its birthplace, Tunisia, has the Arab Springbeen successful in the establishment of something which vaguely resembles aWestern style democratic system. Egypt saw its first-everdemocratically-elected president, the pro-Islamist Mohammed Morsi, overthrownin a military coup in 2013 led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Libya has descendedinto a civil war of its own, with four factions vying for supremacy: thedemocratically elected Council of Deputies, Libya Dawn (an Islamistorganisation backed by Qatar, Sudan and Turkey), the Shura Council of BenghaziRevolutionaries (again an Islamist organisation) and Islamic State. Syriameanwhile presents a most complicated picture: Assad and the Free Syrian Armyare still fighting against one another; both are fighting against IslamicState; an American-Arab League air force is bombing ISIS bases in easternSyria; and the Kurds are busy establishing an independent state in the north.The Syrian civil war has become something of a proxy war, with behind thescenes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran all manoeuvring for advantage. Therise of Isis was in direct response to the funding and arming of rebel groupssuch as the Free Syrian (BBC, 2017). American troops from Iraq in December2011. In April 2013 Islamic State was created by a fusion of the Islamic Stateof Iraq and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra (although not all membersof Jabhat al-Nusra support this. The Arab Spring protests were partly caused bythe rise on food prices across the region: one of the first actions by IslamicState in any new territory it takes control of is to lower the price of bread.As is often the case, people will submit to any kind of regime if theirpersonal safety is assured. freespeech and civil society and arrested those calling for political change.According to some analysts, Al Qaeda has some regional interests, which includethe ousting of the Shiite-aligned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whilesupporting Islamists in the Middle East to attain power; or some of the goalsalready achieved through recent Arab Spring uprisings, which have politicallydestabilized the region already (Williams 2013). We are conscious of thecurrent turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, while various componentsof Al-Qaeda hope to be able to consolidate amid the lawlessness and powervacuums that have emerged in some regions following successful revolutions andin areas experiencing on-going conflict. Equally aware, however, of Al-Qaeda’sincreasing marginalization, the group’s media publications continue to striveto present jihadism as the most appropriate way to protect collectiveinterests, eliminate adversaries, eradicate vice and establish a zealouslypious social order. (Holbrook 2012). However, the biggest problem has been howthe Arab Spring took a lot of pressure off Islamic radical groups and allowedthese fanatics to more easily recruit, raise money, and organize more violence.The revived Islamic terror groups promptly began attacking their former allies(the secular and democratic reformers) as well as Westerners. The leaders ofthe Arab Spring movements were initially sympathetic to Islamic radical groups,seeing them as fellow victims of the old dictatorship. Now most of the ArabSpring leaders see the Islamic radicals as more interested in imposing anotherdictatorship. In 2011, the authorities carried out a majorcampaign of repression in the wake of the Arab uprisings by censoring publicdiscussion of the movement for Arab democratization, prosecuting or arbitrarilydetaining scores of social-media commentators and human rights lawyers, andstrengthening the online censorship of domestic social-networking services.However to the contrary violence continued unabated in 2011, with high-profilepolitical assassinations and high civilian casualty rates in Libya, Syria andEgypt. As2011 drew to a close, officials in Egypt made headlines by conducting a seriesof raids on NGOs that monitor human rights and promote democracy. Most of thetargeted organizations were Egyptian; a few were international groups (FreedomHouse was one of the latter). The authorities were insistent that the raids,which included the seizure of files and computers, were legal and technical innature. Government officials emphasized and reemphasized that they believedhuman rights organizations had a role to play in a democratic Egypt. Theiractions indicated otherwise. In fact, the behaviour of the Egyptianauthorities, now and under Mubarak, reflects a deep-seated hostility to NGOsthat support democracy and human rightsTherewere many heroes, many casualties, and many martyrs to freedom’s cause in 2011.There were also many extraordinary achievements. Authoritarians who aspired torule in perpetuity were toppled in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, and autocraticheads of state in Yemen and Syria however who would know what would replace theauthoritarian structures of law and order, society and educationForeign countries especially the Westincluding Britain, USA and France were the first countries to take advantage ofthe deteriorating situation in the Middle East whilst not condemning theviolence, used this as a pretext to intervene in Sovereign nations for thebenefit of them self and not for the ordinary civilians  (Greenwald, 2017).  The USA had early discomfort with democracyas a foreign policy during the 2011 Arab Spring. ‘Despite the unfortunatecharacterization that it was leading from behind, America’s firmness inassisting NATO’s Libyan campaign was an important step. After initialhesitation, the administration has also cautiously supported the process ofbuilding democratic systems in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya’. It is a strongcontradiction where the NATO bombings were a pretext of getting rid of MuammarGaddafi and there was no plan on how the establish democracy after armingterrorist groups according to the (Atlantic, 2017).Inconclusion it is clear that the 2011 Arab Spring was a factor that caused therise of terrorist activities throughout the Middle East and the wider region.Evidence of large scale protests harboured terrorist organisation such asAl-Qeada who wanted to see revolutions take place throughout the Middle Eastand the cause of the rise of ISIS who have pledged to reign terror around theworld. However other factors are responsible such as the British and US armingrebel groups in Syria and Libya. NATO bombing campaigns in Libya. Democracieswere successful in Tunisia and Egypt, also in Libya but it is very difficult tocomprehend whether living conditions and freedoms have improved since the 2011Arab Spring. The 2011 Arab the rise of Democracy or Terrorism?(The Combating Terrorism centre, 2017)ReferencesAaron Schips. (2011). NATOannounces withdrawal of all troops from Libya. Retrieved December 27, 2016,fromhttps://www.neweurope.eu/article/nato-announces-withdrawal-all-troops-libya/Atlantic, T. (2017, January 10).Retrieved from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/obamas-worst-mistake-libya/478461/BBC. (2017, 01 12). Arming Syrianrebels: Where the US went wrong. Retrieved fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33997408&gws_rd=cr&ei=dT6OWNrxIKnBgAaOs56QAgBBC. (2017, January 22). Viewpoint:Why Arab Spring has not delivered real democracy. Retrieved fromhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27632777Brad Hoff. (2017, 01 15). Retrievedfrom foreignpolicyjournal,:http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/Freedom House. (2017, 01 08). FREEDOMIN THE WORLD 2012. 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Retrieved december 27, 2016, fromhttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmfaff/119/119.pdf?utm_source=119&utm_medium=module&utm_campaign=modulereportsTHE SOUFAN GROUP. (2017, January 2).FOREIGN FIGHTERS An Updated Assessment of the Flow of,. Retrieved fromhttp://soufangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/TSG_ForeignFightersUpdate3.pdfUnited Nations. (2017, January 20). UNHuman Rights council,. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A-HRC-31-CRP1_en.pdfUnited Nations Security council.(2011). Resolution 1970 (2011). Retrieved December 27, 2016, fromhttp://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_02/20110927_110226-UNSCR-1970.pdfUs Department of State. (2017,January 3). Libya,. Retrieved from State Gov,:https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/160075.pdfWilliams. (2017, January 22).Retrieved from https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdfYashwant Raj. (2017, January 14). TheHindustan Times,. Retrieved fromhttp://www.hindustantimes.com/world/qaeda-men-amongst-libyan-rebels/story-Un2joUDcEd30wgmVAH1mnN.htmlKey words and definition:Democracy: a system ofgovernment by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state,typically through elected representatives.Terrorism: the unofficial orunauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.ISIS: Islamic State of Iraqand al-ShamGet Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more