Vestnik RUDN. International Relations (Dec 2016)
The USA and “The Arab Spring”: Evaluations of the Russian Expert Community
Abstract
Russian expert community’s interpretations of US Middle Eastern policy in the context of “the Arab Spring” are considered in the article. This research direction is sufficiently developed in contemporary Russian literature. In particular, there are a number of publications in which current events in the Middle East and US Middle Eastern policy are considered from different positions. The aim of the article is to show Russian evaluations of a role and a place of the USA in events of “the Arab Spring”. The research is based on studies of current publications by Russian authors on the international relations in the Middle East, US foreign policy in 2011-2016 with the application of general scientific and special historical methods. Special attention is drawn to Russian interpretations of an extent of participation of the USA in events of “the Arab Spring”. On the basis of analysis of current publications which are available in the Russian historiography an existence in expert community of three approaches to this problem is noted. The first is characteristic of the politicians and researchers who believe that the USA has acted as the organizer of “the Arab Spring” - a new wave of “the Color revolutions”. The second approach is characteristic of those who deny participation of Americans in the events in the region, indicating the internal reasons. The third approach considers among the reasons of the taken place events in the Arab countries, both the internal political, and foreign policy reasons. Conclusion is made about the influence on the views of many Russian politicians and experts about the US role in the organization of “the Arab Spring” ideology persistent anti-Americanism, which significantly increased in recent years. However, there are not only ideological evaluations considering US actions in the context of implementation of the theory of “controlled chaos” and actions of “world behind the scenes”, but also enough objective, sober estimates of “the Arab Spring” in Russian expert community.
