From Libya and Egypt to Syria and Yemen, the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region is undergoing unprecedented tumult and chaos. We are now approaching the five year anniversary of the so-called “Arab Spring.” This pivotal event laid the groundwork for MENA’s unfolding collapse of nation-states. That the mainstream narrative of this wave of revolts has never been substantially challenged makes new trenchant exploration of this event indispensable. In a newly released book, Fall of the Arab Spring: From Revolution to Destruction,

I propound a maverick thesis on this far-reaching Arab unrest. The book views this widespread Arab upheaval, not as authentic grass roots movements for democracy, but as an ambitious iteration of yet another US-engineered destabilization. Facing an incipient tendency toward multipolarity (multiple centers of world power) against US hegemony—while continuing the status quo of buttressing Israel—Washington manufactured the “Arab Spring.” Eschewing George W. Bush’s crude and bellicose approach, the Obama administration leaned on a synergy of soft and hard power: so-called smart power—all under the veil of lofty romantic platitudes of “democracy” and “human rights.”

Christopher L. Brennan is an independent political analyst and activist based in New York City. He is the author of the newly released book Fall of the Arab Spring: From Revolution to Destruction. He has previously written articles under his pseudonym “Chris Macavel.”