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

Revolution” will depend on the efforts of the Tunisian people themselves, who appear to
be well prepared to undertake this daunting task.
That said, it is also clear that the international community, and individual
countries such as the United States, have a strong interest in seeing the Tunisian
revolution completed by a successful transition to an open, democratic polity. There can
be little doubt that a successful outcome in Tunisia will provide an impressive model for
others to follow, including regional states that have subsequently undergone revolutions
against authoritarian regimes, namely Egypt and Libya, and perhaps as well to states in
the midst of such a revolution (Syria), to say nothing of those states that have not yet
experienced the upheavals of the Arab Spring, including neighboring Algeria and
Morocco. Given its relatively small size and the richness of its human capital, even a
modest amount of international assistance could go a long way to assure the success of
the democratic transition in Tunisia. When compared to the huge costs of the effort to
impose democracy in Iraq, a modest investment in assisting Tunisia in its transition could
produce untold benefit throughout the region, and therefore should be a high priority for
the United States and, indeed, for the entire international community.
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