In Chaos and Counterrevolution, international law scholar Richard Falk explores the wave of popular protests that swept North Africa and the Middle East in 2011--and the rapid demise (or reversal) the protest movement suffered in most countries, soon thereafter. The protests of 2011 inspired a new generation to imagine a future without authoritarianism. Yet, this sense of hope soon gave way to pessimism, counterrevolution, and sectarian strife. In this unique collection of blog posts and essays, Falk explores these developments in key countries like Egypt, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, pairing his reflections on developments as they unfolded with his later analysis of the events. This is a companion volume to Falk's Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope (Just World Books, 2014.)

"In the aftermath of the Cold War there has been a dramatic shift in thinking about the maintenance of peace and security on a global level. This shift is away from a preoccupation with how to prevent major wars between sovereign states to a preoccupation about non-state transnational warfare and violence and strife within states in a world order that continues to be juridically and politically delimited by spatial ideas of national sovereignty and national independence as signified by international boundaries. In this book, Richard Falk draws upon these changes to examine the ethics and politics of humanitarian intervention in the 21st Century. As well as analysing the theoretical and conceptual basis of the responsibility to protect, the book also contains a number of case studies looking at Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Syria. The final section explores when humanitarian intervention can succeed and the changing nature of international political legitimacy in countries such as India, Tibet, South Africa and Palestine.This book will be of interest to students of International Relations theory, Peace Studies and Global Politics. "--