Applying the 'Forward Strategy of Freedom' to Tunisia: A Case Study in the Global War on Terrorism

President George W. Bush has announced "a forward strategy of freedom" in calling for the countries of the Middle East to democratize and allow greater freedom for their citizens so as to win the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Secretary of State Colin Powell recently visited Tunisia and applied this new strategy there, while committing the United States to support political and economic reform in Tunisia. This paper looks at what the next steps should be for both the United States and Tunisia in applying that strategy. It argues that Tunisia is a country that should take more risks in its approach to increasing opportunities for political participation. That will entail ending the organized repression of all opposition movements, but especially of the Islamists who have constituted the major opposition in Tunisia as well as in other Arab-Muslim countries where the authoritarian regime decided not to attempt to co-opt them. The U.S. Government should encourage and reward those efforts at democratic reform. The focus of this paper is an attempt to describe how Tunisia has dealt with its Islamic opposition in the past, and how it is dealing with the impact of events in neighboring Algeria. It also explains that a change in policy is necessary because in Tunisia, as well as elsewhere in the Arab-Muslim world, the United States is blamed for repression and for the lack of democratization because of its support for repressive governments. The author argues that it is important for the United States to actively assist Tunisia and other nations in dealing with the roots of popular discontent, rather than to merely focus on developing closer cooperation in the GWOT. This is necessary not only because of the events of September 11, 2001, but because the level of repression in Tunisia may soon reach the point where it provokes political explosion. (50 refs.)