From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy

In his disturbing and timely book Jean-Pierre Filiu lays bare the strategies and tactics employed by the Middle Eastern autocracies, above all those of Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria, that set out to crush the democratic uprisings of the 'Arab Revolution'. In pursuit of these goals they turned to the intelligence agencies and internal security arms of the 'deep state', the armed forces and to street gangs such as the Shabiha to enforce their will. Alongside physical intimidation, imprisonment and murder, Arab counter- revolutionaries discredited and split their opponents by boosting Salafi - Jihadi groups such as Islamic State. They also released from prison hardline Islamists and secretly armed and funded them. The full potential of the Arab counter-revolution surprised most observers, who thought they had seen it all from the Arab despots: their perversity, their brutality, their voracity. But the wider world underestimated their ferocious readiness to literally burn down their countries in order to cling to absolute power.Bashar al-Assad clambered to the top of this murderous class of tyrants, driving nearly half of the Syrian population in to exile and executing tens of thousands of his opponents. He has set a grisly precedent, one that other Arab autocrats are sure to follow in their pursuit of absolute power.

About the Author :
Jean-Pierre Filiu is Professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, and has held visiting professorships at both Columbia University and Georgetown University. His book The Apocalypse in Islam was awarded the main prize by the French History Association. His books and articles on the Arab world have been published in a dozen languages. His most recent book, Gaza: A History, is also available from Hurst.

Review :
'It takes patience, clarity and perspective to explain the whole grim picture [in the Middle East] and the links between its constituent parts. These qualities are on impressive display in an important new book by the French scholar Jean-Pierre Filiu. His particular skill is to describe the development, survival and resurgence of the Arab "deep state," the security agencies that have kept it going and the "monster they helped create" - in its most extreme form the jihadis of the Islamic state (Isis). ... The answer, Filiu concludes bravely, has to be more democracy, not less, not a fatalistic acceptance that change can never come to the Middle East.' 'Among authors trying to make sense of why the uprisings of 2011 largely failed, Jean-Pierre Filiu stands out. His new book ... combines passion, scholarship, and insight to present a convincing explanation of the deep malaise afflicting the Arab world.' 'Filiu's book should make us think harder about the economics of power . . . as a diagnosis his book is written with scholarship, passion, and clarity.' 'Filiu has produced a refreshingly nuanced analysis of the region's totalitarian regimes, distinguishing between those of his "Modern Mamluks" (in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria) and other styles of suppressive dictatorships (in Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and the Gulf States).' 'Filiu ... argues ... that the Arab revolutions (as he calls them) have been foiled - Tunisia apart - by successful counter-revolutions organised by the 'deep state'. In Syria - as in Egypt and Yemen - the deep state is the hard core of a regime that strongly resembles those of the Mamluks in Egypt and the Levant long ago. He holds the Syrian 'Mamluks' responsible not only for the devastation of their own country but also for the rise of Islamic State ... In [this] polemical book ... Filiu offers the radical view that the 'Mamluks' were crude usurpers of the original national revolution, which they hijacked at independence; he insists that this was the case in Algeria before broadening the charge to apply it to Egypt, Syria and Yemen.' 'An authoritative and revealing tour of the role of "Arab security mafias" in shaping the politics of the Middle East. Filiu's account of the failure of the Arab uprisings places the blame for the region's chaos where it belongs: with the reconstituted deep states, security agencies and autocratic leaders determined to hold on to power at any cost.' 'Filiu's thought-provoking book displays a genius for making sense out of the Middle East's chaos and illuminating key destructive forces. At Year Five of the uncertain Arab Revolution Filiu shows how determined military-based secular regimes sacrificed democratic promise and confronted jihadists in regional violence rarely seen since the Arab Conquest.' '[T]his highly topical and ambitious work ... looks to chart how the Arab Revolutions ... have been crushed by a combination of authoritarian regimes and jihadis. Filiu combines the Mamluk history with a broad look across the Middle East and North Africa with a focus on Algeria, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia ... The hijacking of independence movements is a rip-roaring tale of purges, coups, exiles, state of emergencies and the ubiquitous "Communique Number Ones".' 'This is an invaluable contribution to the murky world of the Arab security regimes. As such external policymakers would be well advised to digest Filiu's prescient warnings.' 'Filiu's book breaks from the pack of works on the Arab Spring. Rather than focus on the grassroots opposition that emerged in 2011 to challenge the Arab authoritarian order, he casts attention on the state regimes with an eye to discerning the sources of their strength and resiliency. In so doing, he takes a long view to argue that State power, often disguised and hidden away, doomed the Arab Spring from the outset. ... Excellent.' 'Far and away the best and most up-to-date survey of the Arab Security State and its ability to master the various waves of popular uprisings it faced during the Arab Spring. Based on a set of challenging hypotheses as well as an unrivalled feel for Arab political behaviour it must become required reading.' 'With magisterial knowledge of the Middle East, this sweeping narrative convincingly links the two most tragic events of our time: the failure of the Arab revolts and the proliferation of Islamist militancy. The result is a fast-paced, sombre, and ultimately devastating account.' 'Filiu has attempted to connect the past to the present in this highly topical and ambitious work that looks to chart how the Arab revolutions...have been crushed by a combination of authoritarian regimes and jihadis.' 'Misunderstanding the rise of the [Arab] state security mafias could have significant consequences. Jean-Pierre Filiu has admirably attempted to correct [Western misinterpretations]. ... The text also provides a new interpretation of the Arab Spring in 2011, arguing that demonstrators took to the streets seeking revolution but were met with a sustained and bloody counterrevolution. ... [T]his book is essential reading.'