The Native Iowan

Arab Spring is a term that was used beginning in March 2005 by numerous media commentators to suggest that a spin-off benefit of the invasion of Iraq would be the flowering of Western-friendly Middle East democracies.
In the wake of the electoral success of Hamas in the January 2006 Palestinian elections, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough noted the declining use of the term. “So what happened to the Arab spring? This time last year, as we faced the prospect of a series of elections in the Middle East, many commentators hit their keyboards to welcome the Arab spring – about 160 of them, according to one news database … But it seems that with the results in we don’t like the term any more – only 23 mentions in the past six months. Funny that.”