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The Man Behind the Arab Spring

Serbian activist Srdja Popovic’s successful blueprint for non-violent protest

by
Stephanie Butnick
February 09, 2012
Srđa Popović at TEDxKraków 2011(Ela Żubrowska/TEDxKraków)
Srđa Popović at TEDxKraków 2011(Ela Żubrowska/TEDxKraków)

Senior writer Liel Leibovitz has a profile of Srdja Popovic today in the Atlantic, explaining how the 39-year-old Serbian activist—who as a student worked to oust Slobodan Milošević—has actively laid the groundwork, through seminars and widely-disseminated guides, for successful protests in Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon and, most recently, Egypt. Many of the young Egyptians who assembled in Tahrir Square had attended a 2009 training session held by Popovic’s organization, CANVAS.

Leibovitz writes:

Still, for all his method’s success, Popovic feels that those who should be paying the most attention—academics, politicians, journalists—instead continue to view politics largely as a game played by governments and decided by war. “Nobody, from very prominent political analysts to the world’s intelligence services, could find their own nose when the Arab Spring started. It is always this same old narrative: ‘It happened in Serbia by accident. It happened in Georgia by accident. It happened in Tunisia by accident. But it will never happen in Egypt.’ And this is the mantra we keep hearing—until it happens.”


The Revolutionist [The Atlantic]
Related: Generation X [Tablet Magazine]
Earlier: Crisis in Cairo
Why Egypt Can Handle Democracy

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.