The term ‘revolution’ carries with it connotations of formal state politics and the overthrowing of a political regime.  A revolution can  be categorized as such if it is carried out by armed insurgents who seek formal recognition as that state’s governing body. Foucault attempts to disrupt this conception of revolution by arguing that it is “not just a political project; it [is] also a form of life” (Cornell & Seely 10). For Foucault, a revolution does not require formal regime change, rather it involves the reconceptualization of the self. Revolution is a process instead of an end-goal; “revolution is not just fighting for another world, but for how to be a different subject in this one” (Cornell & Seely 10). Revolution cannot be understood linearly as being comprised of a beginning and an end, for it is about the promise of the future and “unremitting restlessness” (Cornell & Seely 11). Foucault understands ‘the very heart of politics’ to be “a search for new practices of governing oneself and others through a way of dividing true and false that has not been with us before” (Cornell & Seely 15). Through this conceptualization, revolution can have no end since the search for new practices is never-ending.

The Arab Spring is a recent example of revolutionary protests which captivated the entire world. As a result of these mass protests, leaders were forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. The unprecedented nature of these uprisings created an extreme optimism regarding the promise of the future and a successful transition to democratic regimes. Almost four years after the Arab Awakening, many political analysts have considered it to be a failure. The barometer for failure used in this case is the absence of a fully realized democratic state. When applying Foucault’s conceptualization of revolution, the designation of failure is not so easily made. Revolution is a continual process involving an “unremitting restlessness” in “a search for new practices” (Cornell & Seely 11, 15). The Arab Spring was utterly successful in creating “a different subject” who challenged the practices of their dictators (Cornell & Seely 10). The reconceptualization of the self occurred through interrogating the relation of citizen to state, and the relation of citizen to citizen through social media. Participants of the Arab Spring demanded “the messianic and emancipatory promise” (Cornell & Seely 6).