This event was the launch of Jamie Allinson's latest book The Age of Counter-Revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East published by Cambridge University Press.

The 'Arab Spring' has come to symbolise defeated hopes for democracy and social justice in the Middle East. In this book, Allinson demonstrates how these defeats were far from inevitable. Rather than conceptualising the 'Arab Spring' as a series of failed revolutions, Allinson argues it is better understood as a series of successful counter-revolutions.

Placing the fate of the Arab uprisings in a global context, Allinson reveals how counter-revolutions rely on popular support and cross borders to forge international alliances. By connecting the Arab uprisings to the decade of global protest that followed them, Allinson's work demonstrates how new forms of counter-revolution have rendered it near impossible to implement political change without first enacting fundamental social transformation.

Jamie Allinson is senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Jamie's research concerns social theory and the critique of political economy.

Ala'a Shehabi is a lecturer in Middle East Politics at the Department of European and International Social and Political Studies at UCL. Shehabi is also a senior research fellow at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.

Charles Tripp has been Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London since 2007.

Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE where he is Deputy Head of the Department (PhD and Research). He is also Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme at the LSE Middle East Centre.