Convening 14 December 2020 Online (Zoom)
The Arab Winter and the Tunisian Exception in Context

Monday 14 & Tuesday 15 December – 5pm, CET

Reset Dialogues on Civilizations | Mominoun Without Borders | Reset Dialogues US

With the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation

 

Register Here to participate in the Zoom conference.

10 years ago, an unprecedented season of uprisings and political and social changes – now referred to as the Arab Spring – swept North Africa and the Near East. Today, we are seeing transformations, considered unimaginable at the time, both internally and in the region’s balance of power. The yearning for democracy, at the heart of the Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian and Yemeni revolutions and of the protest movements in Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Lebanon, has not died but has only marginally found its full realization in this last decade.

The political, social and economic path taken by the Tunisian Republic is unique in the MENA region, successfully overcoming critical junctions in its recent history, including the risk of civil conflict in the immediate aftermath of Ben Ali and of destabilization by armed jihadists. The 2014 Constitution provided Tunisia with a solid foundation on which to build protections for rights of individuals and the community. However, the lack of effective economic development strategies, and most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic, have created a climate of growing distrust among the population towards the political system. The democratic process and political pluralism seem to hang by a thread: new political actors have conquered the limelight, deserted by yesterday’s protagonists. Ennahda’s moderate Islamists and Nidaa Tounès’ modernist liberals, worn out by a decade of power and management, sit on the sidelines, while conservative and populist forces, with names evoking the ancien régime, have advanced in the latest presidential and parliamentary elections.

Simultaneous translation from English to Italian and Italian to English will be available. 

 

AGENDA

Monday, December 14th

AN ARAB WINTER?

  5 pm

Welcome and opening

Giancarlo Bosetti (ResetDOC)

 

Keynote Speech

Soli Özel

 

  5:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Panel 1: The Frozen Revolutions

Speakers: Amr HamzawyArturo Varvelli

Chair: Federica Zoja  (ResetDOC)

 

6:10 pm – 6:30 pm

Panel 2: Will the Thaw Ever Come?    

Speakers: Pasquale FerraraZineb Benalla

Chair: Patrizio Fondi  (ResetDOC)

 

6:50 pm – 7:30 pm

Roundtable Did Everything Change so Nothing Would Change?

Speakers: Lisa Anderson, Ursula Lindsey, Stefano Torelli

Chair: Jonathan Laurence  (ResetDOC)

Closing remarks 

 

 

Tuesday, December 15th

THE TUNISIAN EXCEPTION IN CONTEXT

5 pm

Opening 
Federica Zoja  (ResetDOC) 

 

    5:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Panel 1: The Democratic Construction Site         

Speakers: Sharan Grewal , Aymen Boughanmi  

Chair:  Mohammed Hashas (Luiss University, Rome; Fscire-Palermo)

 

6:10 pm – 6:40 pm

Panel 2: Political Islam and the Regional Environment        

Speakers: Ruth Hanau Santini, Radwan Masmoudi 

Chair:  Simone Disegni (ResetDOC)

 

6:50 pm – 7:30 pm 

Panel 3Tunisia as a Bridgehead to Africa and the Middle East

Speakers: Lorenzo Fanara, Jonathan Laurence

Chair:  Giancarlo Bosetti (ResetDOC)

 

Closing remarks

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