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

counter-weight to possible incursions by extreme Islamism. To do this effectively, the
consolidated party should hire an election strategist
• Religious secularists must be strengthened through cooperation with the other
secular leadership to come up with a viable political platform. The secularists will
need to come up with a salient platform for why the secularist way is better for
Tunisia, while promoting this new less laïque interpretation. Likely, the answer will
be that it would be better at creating economic opportunity and trade with the West
due to a more stable political structure. The state structure that currently exists would
push both groups to an extreme and have high volatility based on the fact that each
group would seek to undo the work of the other group once they were in power.
Trust in common liberal goals and the long-term stability of the regime is very
important for foreign investment and foreign relationships.
• The secularists need to find a way to enter the universities as well as to campaign
in the interior of the country. To do so, the secularists need to start up public
services and make themselves visible and helpful within communities. Perhaps
using television or some other media they can combat the mosque sponsorship upon
which the religious parties capitalize.
• The secularists should create partnerships with the United States. While the
United States is heavily criticized in some ways in Tunisia, American democracy is
not. These partnerships would bring in outside influence, advice, and civil society
mobilization that might be respected and would provide international credibility to
the movement.
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