Tunisia 10 years later: (not) fulfilled hopes

Оn February, 24, 2021 the School of International Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University, together with the Russian Middle East Association within the framework of the permanent online seminar «Contemporary area studies», organized the fourth meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Arab Spring with a Head of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov, on the topic : "Tunisia 10 years later: (not) fulfilled hopes».

The seminar was moderated by Dr. Andrey Baklanov – Professor, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Studies Section of the School of International Regional Studies, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University. 

At the beginning of the meeting, all the participants and the speaker of the event were greeted by Dr. Sergey Karaganov, Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University and  Dr. Vera Vishnyakova, Head of the School of International Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University. 

Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov in his presentation put the attention on the political changes that have taken place in Tunisia in the last 10 years. As the expert stressed, Tunisia is usually named as one of the successful experience of the «Arab Spring». It can be seen by the differentiation of models of political structure and development. Moreover, it can be supported by the fact that political process in Tunisia is differed its peculiarity and does not resemble the experiences of other states in the region. 

Speaker has also mentioned the certain characteristics of revolution in Tunisia. Firstly, the spontaneity of events was noted. If we look at Egypt or Libya, we will see that Tunisia’s experience was an indicator for them. In Tunisia, meanwhile, there was no model that launched the revolution. The low level of the violent actions was the second crucial point. As the expert said, this fact be explained by the lack of the explicit leaders in the society. 

The attention of the participants was also attracted to the significance of transitional authority of the technocratic exec. Furthermore, Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov has highlighted that such effective experience of government’s work hardly can be repeated nowadays. 

The special place was given to the civil society in Tunisia and its institutions. As noticed the expert, the forces of the civil society during the «Arab Spring» was highly effective and demanded in the state. Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov indicated 4 organisations of the civil society that contributed to the national dialogue in 2013: Tunisian trade unions, the Chamber of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the League of the Protection of Human Rights, Lawyer’s Guild. The participation of these 4 organisations speaker connected with the success of national dialogue. 

However, the experts mentioned the reverse of the coin. The main consequence of a strong civil society is a discredit of political parties in the State. The negative impact is also related to weakness of any government that is formed within the country. 

At the end of the presentation, Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov stressed that revolution in Tunisia demonstrated two crucial things. Firstly, the ability of the society to prevent the large-scale political violence. Secondly, the readiness of the society to protect themselves from the potential violence. Dr. Vasily Kuznetsov answered all the participant ’s questions. 

The link to the video: https://youtu.be/HosC4ZWLQnY