Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

the Constitutional Assembly in Tunisia remarked that the election assistance provided by
the U.S. was beneficial to the success of the recent election. Due in part to this success,
the Tunisian government has requested additional assistance from the U.S. to provide
constitutional scholars to help draft the new constitution (SAIS Group Meeting, 26
January 2012).
Policymakers in Tunisia’s security sector have requested that the U.S. provide
training to its security forces to enable them to manage the social unrest and create an
attractive investment environment. The Tunisian police force is associated in the Tunisian
public with the oppression of the Ben Ali government and lacks the training to enforce a
fair legal system. The government has valid concerns about political assassinations
carried out by Islamic extremist groups, and the integrity of its borders is threatened by
ongoing civil unrest in Libya. Mokhtar Trifi, head of the Tunisian League for the Defense
of Human Rights, stated that the Tunisian security force has sought out technical training
from the U.S. This training will help them conduct crime scene investigations in order to
use forensic science techniques to convict criminals that are creating instability in the
country (SAIS Group Meeting, 24 January 2012).
Additional training programs to strengthen the labor force of Tunisia have also
been submitted to the U.S. The Tunisian vision for assistance from the U.S. is not in the
classic form of bags of seed to help feed the country, but rather for technical assistance
training programs. Executive Board members of the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade
and Handicrafts (UTICA) have repeatedly expressed their concerns that employers in
Tunisia see recent college graduates as being insufficiently educated to meet the needs of
the economy. Organizations in Tunisia like UTICA have asked the U.S. to provide
training programs in the education system for skills such as entrepreneurship so that
young Tunisians will learn how to start businesses and make the economy grow.
Proposals have also been made for the U.S. to provide training on other technical areas
such as renewable energy in solar and wind power production (SAIS Group Meeting, 26
January 2012).
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