Published date: 14 February 2021 10:26 UTC | Last update: 1 month 1 week ago The sense of optimism that spurred on demonstrators on 14 February 2011 has been obliterated as foreign governments continue to acquiesce to a decade-long crackdown In his recent book A Promised Land, former US president Barack Obama reflects on his time as leader of the free world at a moment when the Middle East was erupting in a cascade of demonstrations that would come to be known as the Arab Spring. In the book, Obama discusses how he tried to ease Hosni Mubarak out of Egypt as the 2011 uprisings seemed poised to topple his administration, despite the autocrat's well-established relationship with the US. After Mubarak's removal, Obama notes that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the country's future.