Abstract

This chapter explores the domestic, regional, and international implications of the uprising in Bahrain. It demonstrates how the revolutionary protests at the Pearl Roundabout that began on 14 February 2011 fit into a longer pattern of recurrent opposition to the ruling Al-Khalifa family. Nevertheless, the February 14 movement was distinct from previous bouts of protest both in its size and its initial cross-sectarian mobilisation. The chapter begins by describing the reasons behind the emergence of this burgeoning social movement as well as the regime’s measures to contain and suppress it. Subsequent sections examine the reconfiguration and fragmentation of Bahrain’s political landscape as extremist groups have undercut the moderate middle ground, the continuing impasse between a regime unwilling to make substantive concessions and an enraged opposition movement, and the complex interplay between domestic and regional counter-revolutionary processes and their consequences for Bahrain’s international credibility.

The uprising in Bahrain that began on 14 February 2011 has been contained, but not resolved. Although the immediate period of danger to the position of the ruling Al-Khalifa family has passed, positions on all sides have hardened, and there is little prospect of a political settlement to Bahrain’s deep-rooted social and economic inequalities. As the Bahraini government has failed to offer meaningful concessions to political reform, it has splintered and radicalised an opposition unsure what to do next, but also undermined its own constituency of support amongst the kingdom’s Sunni communities. These trajectories have set in motion a radical reconfiguring of the island’s political landscape in ways that do not augur well for longer-term prospects for reconciliation and recovery.