“In January 2011, days after the first uprising in Tunisia and the protests in Tahrir Square, the Guardian invited leading writers from across the Arab world to reflect on the revolutionary fervour sweeping the region. Then, they expressed great optimism for the future. Here, they revisit their responses and ask, is there still room for hope?”
This article also provides links to the original interviews conducted in 2011. An excellent look at the hope and disappointment of the Arab Spring.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/23/arab-spring-five-years-on-writers-look-back
For further reading, see also:
The Arab Winter -The Economist
This article provides plenty of statistics to back up the gloomy narrative, broken up appropriately by subheadings based on the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. For the Egyptians in particular it has been “meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”
IR Theory & Practice 