Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article Volume 4 (2): 424 – 437 (November 2012) Sukarieh, From Terrorists to Revolutionaries 424 From terrorists to revolutionaries: the emergence of “youth” in the Arab world and the discourse of globalization Mayssoun Sukarieh Abstract Why are the Arab Revolution dubbed as Youth Revolutions? Who is pushing for this label? And why? Prior to these revolutions and specifically after 9/ 11 Arab youth were dubbed as terrorists, and their state of Arab youth has become one of global concern. How over night can terrorist youth turn into revolutionary youth? Why has youth become a focus of concern now? What is at stake here and for whom? How does this shape how we think about social, economic, political, historical issues in the Arab world, and what issues does it obscure? The paper focuses on the historical emergence and transformation of “Arab youth” in the new millennium marked by the war on terror and opening up of the market in the Middle East in the hope that this historical account might shed light on the current label of Arab Revolutions as Youth ones. Introduction The past decade has witnessed a “youth turn” in the Arab world. Youth ministries have been formed and national youth strategies produced; there has been a surge in NGOs tailored to youth, and curriculum changes dedicated to making youth “employable;” youth parliaments have been formed in many Arab countries to increase political “participation” among youth. In Egypt, for example, 60% of youth NGOs were created between 2003 and 2006. Many reports about the state of Arab youth have been released. The Arab League dedicated its 2005 and 2006 reports to the subject of Arab youth. Newspapers have dedicated weekly pages to Arab youth. The Arab Network of NGOs dedicated its 2007 annual report to analyzing Arab youth and civil society. Policy-making centers dedicate sections to youth – such as the Issam Fares at the American University of Beirut and the Dubai School of Government. Prior to this surge of interest in youth in the Middle East itself, a parallel surge of studies and policy-making documents tailored to Arab youth were released in the US, immediately after the 9/ 11 attacks in 2001. Initiatives were taken to tackle the issue of Arab youth by the Muslim Youth Initiative at the Rand Corporation 1 , the Middle East Youth Initiative at the Brookings Institute (which partners with Issam Fares and the Dubai School of Government program) 2 , as 1 http:/ / www.rand.org/ international_programs/ cmepp/ imey.html 2 http:/ / www.shababinclusion.org/