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Adam Roberts

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Year of Publication: 2018

Roberts, Adam, The Fate of the Arab Spring: Ten Propositions, Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Vol. 12, no. 3, 2018, pp. 273-289

Roberts discusses the 2011 uprisings in their broader historical context of the breakdown of empires and problems of creating order, and then summarizes the key events in the Arab Spring, with a particular emphasis on the role of civil resistance.

Year of Publication: 2016

Roberts, Adam ; Willis, Michael J. ; McCarthy, Rory ; Garton Ash, Timothy, Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring: Triumphs and Disasters, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 360

After a general overviews of politics and resistance in the region, experts on individual countries explore the immediate impact of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria, and the subsequent developments, discussing the reasons for reassertion of repression on Bahrain and later Egypt; political breakdown in Libya and civil war intensified by external interference in Yemen and Syria. There are also chapters on the monarchical response to pressure for reform in Jordan and Morocco, and why the Arab Spring did not ignite massive resistance in Palestine. Adam Roberts provides a concluding assessment of the problems of using civil resistance in the Arab Spring, the difficulties of democratization, and the lessons to be learned. 

Year of Publication: 2009

Roberts, Adam ; Garton Ash, Timothy, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 407

The Foreword to the 2011 paperback comments on the Arab Spring.

Succinct analytical case studies (organised around a set of questions) of movements of unarmed resistance from Gandhi to Burma in 2007, with incisive introductory and concluding assessments. Particular emphasis on the impact of external governmental pressures in promoting the success of resistance. One chapter analyses the role of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe up to 1989.

Roberts, Adam ; Garton Ash, Timothy, Foreword to the Paperback Edition : The Arab Spring, In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 5-9

a preliminary attempt to assess the uprisings from a civil resistance perspective

Year of Publication: 1991

Roberts, Adam, Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet Revolutions, Cambridge MA, Albert Einstein Institution, 1991, pp. 43

Year of Publication: 1975

Roberts, Adam, Civil Resistance to Military Coups, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 12, no. 1, 1975, pp. 19-36

Discusses resistance to Kapp Putsch in Germany 1920 and attempted coup in France by generals based in Algeria in 1961.

Year of Publication: 1970

Carter, April ; Hoggett, David ; Roberts, Adam, Nonviolent Action: A Selected Bibliography, London, Housmans, 1970

Year of Publication: 1969

Roberts, Adam, Civilian Resistance as a National Defence, [1967], 2nd edn, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, pp. 367

[Previously The Strategy of Civilian Defence]

Discusses campaigns of national unarmed resistance to military occupation (e.g. the Ruhr in 1923) and to both Nazi and Communist regimes. Basil Liddell Hart (pp. 228-46) compares guerrilla and nonviolent resistance to occupation. The 1969 edition analyses Czechoslovak resistance to Soviet occupation.

Windsor, Philip ; Roberts, Adam, Czechoslovakia 1968: Reform, Repression and Resistance, London, Chatto and Windus (for the Institute of Strategic Studies), 1969, pp. 200

The first half by Windsor explores the broad context and reasons for the Soviet invasion; Roberts (pp. 97-143) assesses the resistance drawing on the BBC monitoring service reports and interviews. Key documents relating to the invasion are included in appendices.

Year of Publication: 1966

Roberts, Adam, The Buddhists, the War and the Vietcong, World Today, Vol. 22, no. 5 (May), 1966, pp. 214-222

Year of Publication: 1963

Roberts, Adam, Buddhism and Politics in South Vietnam, World Today, Vol. 21, no. 6 (June), 1963, pp. 240-250

Account of the 1963 Buddhist revolt, its origins and aftermath. See also later article by Roberts assessing the political potential of the Buddhists: Roberts, Adam , The Buddhists, the War and the Vietcong World Today, 1966, pp. 214-222 . Both articles now available online: http://www.jstor.org (but only via contributing libraries).