Tunisia’s Revolution: Five Years On, What Lies Ahead
Published: January 20, 2016
Panelists: Ambassador Faycal Gouia (Embassy of the Republic of Tunisia); Amy Hawthorne (Project on Middle East Democracy); Scott Mastic (International Republican Institute); Joyce Kasee-Mills (U.S. Institute of Peace)
Moderator: Linda Bishai (U.S. Institute of Peace)
Summary:
Tunisia’s Revolution: Five Years On, What Lies Ahead, is a talk Continue reading
“The Arab Awakening – The end of a dictator” is a documentary by Al Jazeera English, a Qatar based broadcaster of Arabic news and affairs who attempts to show all sides of every story. This documentary is the first of an eight part series, called “The Arab Awakening,” that focuses on Egypt during the time of the Arab Spring. “The end of a dictator” shows the end of Mubarak’s rule as seen by those who took part in the protests. The documentary follows two young people, Miral Brinjy and Ahmed Badawy, who were part of the protests from the beginning. Continue reading
Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings edited by Jon B. Alterman
Reviewed and Summarized by Ella Marks, Jake Simon, Brigid Callahan, Carmen Sanchez Cumming, and Innocent Mpoki
Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings is a short collection of writings about the Arab Spring in 2011. Published in 2015, the book is one of the most recent published analyses of the Arab Spring and its impacts on the Middle East. The essays focus on the relationship between the uprisings and an increase in radicalism in the region. As a whole, the book can be viewed as a warning to readers that the crisis in the Arab world is far from over. Governments have many challenges to face against religiously inspired militants who have only become stronger since the uprisings began in 2011.
Jihadi-Salafi Rebellion and the Crisis of Authority – Haim Malka
This chapter describes the constant struggle between jihadist groups for authentic Muslim leadership and unity in the Middle East. Competition for authority and legitimacy has driven jihadi-salafist groups to take more extreme measures in order to distinguish themselves. Continue reading
Summary and review by Jake Stalcup, August Peters, Carsen Winn, Jack DeFrino, Andrew McGrath, Jon Hurvitz
Tunisian Revolutions: Reflections on Seas, Coasts, and Interiors was written by Julia Clancy-Smith and published in 2014. The book acknowledges the importance of the economic and political factors in the rise of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, but offers a much more complicated analysis of the reason for the revolution. The author’s main goal in her book is to examine the difference between the coastal and interior areas of Tunisia and their role in the last two centuries in shaping the country. Clancy-Smith examines how the coastal area of Tunisia is much more productive, wealthy, and dependent on tourism than the poorer, marginalized interior region. She explains how the simple geographic differences have led to discussions of religion, gender, and politics that continue to affect the country and greatly influenced the revolution. Continue reading
Summarized and reviewed by Cole Bortz and Margot Masinter
Summary
CHAPTER I – Maturation of the Idea of National Dialogue After the Revolution
M’rad chronologically discusses the personalities and efforts behind Tunisia’s National Dialogue, partitioning its evolution into 4 distinct phases: after January 14 revolution; after October 2011 elections; after Chokri Belaid’s assassination; after Mohamed Brahmi’s assassination. Within each phase, Hatem describes specific personalities, groups, and distinct events involved. Interesting is his account of President Marzouki’s failed attempt of national dialogue after the assassination of Chokri Belaid – “the rebellious spirit of Marzouki is conducive neither to pragmatism nor to concessions, all necessary for dialogue” Continue reading
Peace versus Justice Edited by Chandra Lekha Sriram and Suren Pillay
Summary:
This book attempts to analyze this the different forms of transitional justice that have taken place in modern Africa. Exploring the political, economic, and social environment, this analysis looks at both domestic and foreign actors as it highlights successes and pitfalls during the reconciliation process. Continue reading
Transition and Marginalization: Locating Spaces for Discursive Contestation in Post-Revolution Tunisia by Edwige Fortier (2015)
Transition and Marginalization: Locating Spaces for Discursive Contestation in Post-Revolution Tunisia examines the role and activity of the LGBTQ+ community before and after the revolution in Tunisia. Fortier argues that while freedom of speech and open channels for Continue reading
The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. Hamid Dabashi.
Hamid Dabashi begins his work The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism (2012) with the very familiar start of the Arab Spring narrative: with the “inconspicuous” self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 10th, 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. On January 17th, precisely a month after Bouazizi’s act, a 40-year old Egyptian also self-immolated; international media was “on alert” and there was a “synergy in the air… the world watched” (18).
The conscious symmetry between the two self-immolations is a fitting beginning to Dabashi’s more broad argument. Dabashi explores the transnational linkages within and outside the Arab revolts in order to explode the Spring’s familiar framing. For Dabashi, the Arab Spring marks the metaphorical and actual end of both the domestic nithaam and the foreign regime du savior – these revolutions are not motivated by replicating the “West” but instead transcend the very concept of the West. The Arab Spring thus demands new, radically different conceptual frames in order to capture both the revolutionaries’ motivations and the revolutions’ potential implications. Continue reading
Youth and Revolution in Tunisia, by Alcinda Honwana, is a book written in 2013, two years after the Tunisian Revolution. The author explains the Tunisian youth’s involvement in every step of the revolution, providing a unique, but essential perspective on the events that took place.
INTRODUCTION:
The author establishes that the uprisings in Tunisia were ignited and spread initially by the youth and social media, before older people playing a ‘political game’ took the power out of their hands. This introduction goes on to explain the author’s research process in writing the book, which was comprised mostly of interviews with Tunisia’s youth, before giving a brief overview of Tunisia’s pre-uprising history and finally, a summary the topics to be discussed in the upcoming pages. Continue reading