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Abstract: The quantitative analysis of the Arab Spring events is a rather difficult task. Respective difficulties are related to the variety of factors affecting social instability, and to individual peculiarities [...]

This article focuses on the policy of France's Fifth Republic on the African continent, primarily in the area of historical French influence formed during the colonial period. We analyze the conditions, prerequisites, and mechanisms for the development of cooperation between France and the African states, with reference to the implementation of France's national interests. In this study, we aim to identify and generalize the models and methods of pursuing French national interests on the African continent, including in connection with the development of individual African states, as well as the impact of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes relative deprivation as a possible factor of sociopolitical instability during the Arab Spring events using the methods of correlation and multiple regression analysis. In this case, relative deprivation is operationalized in two ways: (a) through the indicator of subjective feeling of happiness on the eve of the events of the Arab Spring, and (b) through the scale of decrease of the subjective feeling of happiness on the eve of the events of Arab Spring. It is shown that the change in the level of subjective feeling of happiness between 2009 and 2010 is a powerful, statistically significant predictor of the level of destabilization in Arab countries in 2011. The next most powerful predictor is the mean value of the subjective feeling of happiness in the corresponding country for 2010. At the same time, the fundamental economic indicators we tested, while controlling for them, have turned out to be extremely weak and at the same time statistically insignificant predictors of the level of sociopolitical instability in the Arab countries in 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of fitnah could be traced throughout history in different regions and cultures. The Arab spring events of 2011-2012 are not an exception in this context. The next outburst of protest activity occurred where it was not expected in the near future--in Ukraine. If we compare the events in the Arab countries in 2011 and Ukraine in 2013-2014, it can be concluded that in essence they fit the characteristics of fitnah very well, which are attributed to it by the Arabic political culture. In both cases, the fitnah acquired permanent character turning into anarchy and chaos ("fouda"). The government/the ruling power found itself unprepared for such manifestations of fitnah and miscalculated the threat posed by the protesters. From our perspective, in the modern world this phenomenon can be explained by the rapid development of Internet technologies that gives the opposition an opportunity to prepare a protest virtually, in an area not totally controlled by the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burton and Reitz suggested that Islam should tend to decrease the levels of female labor force participation rate, because “societies that seclude their women by means of purdah or similar customs will have lower rates of female participation in activities outside of the immediate household.” Our cross-cultural tests have supported this hypothesis. However, a closer analysis shows that a high correlation is predicted mostly by the “Arab factor,” rather than by the precisely Islamic one, as a country’s belonging to the Arab world turns out to be a much stronger predictor of very low female labor participation rates than the percentage of Muslims in its population. These relationships hold even after controlling for other factors known to be related to female labor participation. This suggests that the anomalously low level of female labor participation observed in the Near and Middle East might be connected with certain elements of Arab culture that are not directly connected with Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]