Arab Spring Then and Now: From Hope to Despair (History As It Happened)

Middle East conflict and the Arab Spring: Gain insight and learn from two of the most acclaimed experts on the Middle East

In December 2010, the “Tunisian Revolution” touched off a wave of protests, riots, revolutions and civil wars throughout the Middle East. Initially the world hoped for positive change – democracy, free elections, and human rights. But, by 2012 the Arab Spring had morphed into “Arab Winter” bringing death, destruction, and despair. The Independent’s Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn, two of the most acclaimed Middle East correspondents of our generation, examine the events of this regional tsunami that threatens to have an impact on our world for years to come.

Robert Fisk, one of the most decorated journalists of our time, has reported from virtually every trouble spot in the world for over forty years documenting horrors few of us can imagine. His earliest assignments were during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. But most of his reporting has been focused on the Middle East from his home base in Beirut since then. Fisk has collected virtually every award in journalism, as well as honorary degrees, and is widely recognised as the finest foreign correspondent of his generation. He is the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden three times.

Patrick Cockburn is a distinguished writer and is the current Foreign Correspondent of the Year, one of the industry's most prestigious awards. In a lifetime of fighting to get the stories out from behind the barricades and between the bullets, Patrick most recently warned the world, before anyone else including governments and international agencies, of the dangerous rise of the so-called Islamic State. He is a journalist valued by heads of state and government.