Research & Publications: Tunisia

In this week's Monday Briefing MEI experts provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Turkish President Erdogan's trip to Russia tomorrow, Iranian President Rouhani's upcoming meeting with President Putin in Baku, the ongoing battle for Aleppo, strains in U.S.-Pakistan relations over the Haqqani Network, and what's next for Tunisia's political transition following the vote of no confidence in the current government.

In this week's Monday Briefing, MEI experts Robert S. Ford, Charles Schmitz, Gonul Tol, and Mabrouka M'Barek provide analysis on recent events including Manbij offensive, Yemen talks, Israel-Turkey rapprochement, and Tunisia national unity government.

While the intention among Tunisia’s leaders to improve the economy is clear, the approach thus far has left a lot to be desired.

In this week's Monday Briefing, MEI experts Hassan Mneimneh, Robert S. Ford, and Mabrouka M'Barek provide analysis on recent events including Iraq's political storm, efforts to salvage the Syrian cease-fire, and the first Tunisia-U.S. Joint Economic Commission meeting starting later this week.

Tunisia is facing multiple pressures that, if not handled well by its current leaders, could undermine its stability as it continues to grapple with the post-Arab Spring era.

This paper spotlights women’s rights organizations as key players in civil society in Tunisia and Morocco, with a comparative glance at the Philippines and South Korea, two Asian participants in democracy’s third wave. Applying the existing literature on women, gender, and democratic transitions, we draw attention to the role of women’s rights organizations in civil society and as agents of democratization; examine the organizations’ role and influence during protests and transitions; and analyze the gendered outcomes in terms of laws and policies affecting women’s rights.

At face value, the targets of the Bardo Museum attack on March 18 in Tunis were Tunisia and the West, the former as the sole survivor of the “Arab Spring,” a country that has been successful in bridging the transition toward a democratic order, and the latter as the foe that radical Islamism seeks to defeat and supplant. A more extreme secular reading of the event may even see in it a punishment for Tunisia for having denied Islamist parties the coveted electoral victory and a reminder that, even from the margins, Islamism will dictate the course of the nation. Considered from within the Islamist context, however, the attack is another salvo in an intra-Islamist civil war, with Tunisians and Westerners as collateral damage.