This book puts the recent Arab revolts in comparative global perspective, as a means to a larger end: to flesh out similarities and to draw parallels between democratic and authoritarian-like regimes. It is based on the notion that while contention in authoritarian settings is different from that in liberal democratic ones, it is not different in kind. Consciously avoiding a teleological-like normative approach and while respecting and being mindful of each cases particularities, contributors to this volume broaden the comparative perspective of the recent wave of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) revolts with non-MENA revolts, an undertaking that has been mostly based on similarities in basic conditions and outcomes and restricted to MENA countries. Instead of treating MENA countries as monolithic and essentializing them, as the term Arab Spring does, or seeking to identify similar sources of discontent or silver bullet-like factors, the book privileges a focus on the dynamics of contentious politics as they apply to the intricate, contingent, and indeterminate relationship among popular contention, regime, and transition. By asking what cycles of contention in other parts of the world can tell us about revolts in the Arab world, and what the cycles of contention in the Arab world can tell us about contentious politics more generally, the book maintains a productive and useful balance between theory and empirics.