Middle East and North Africa Archives | Page 2 of 3

Regions

AnalysesMiddle East and North Africa

Undoubtedly, 2011 was a turning point in the history of the Arab region. The 2011 popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and, to a lesser extent, Morocco, were followed by another wave of such uprisings in Algeria, Iraq, and Lebanon in 2019. The genocidal war raging in Gaza since 2023 has taken the region to a yet deeper abyss in existential, moral, political, and economic terms. How have thinkers of the region been interacting with these upheavals? How have these dramatic events impacted the intellectual scene of the region?

Videos Middle East and North Africa

Ruth Hanau Santini, associate professor of Politics and International relations at the University of Naples L’Orientale, discusses how Tunisia’s democratic backslide stemmed from unimplemented reforms and an elite-driven process that sidelined public trust. These issues ultimately paved the way for populist influence, culminating in Tunisia’s current political crisis.

ConveningMiddle East and North Africa

December

2023

Palermo, Italy

The conference will examine why democracy has struggled to take root in the Arab world: historical factors such as the consequences of oil resources, autocratic regimes, the inability to effectively implement economic reforms, the historical legacy of the alliance with the Soviet Union and the effects of colonialism, and in more recent times the negative parabola of the “Arab Springs” and in particular the failure of the compromise between Islamic and secular political forces that had made possible the beginning of a democratic path for Tunisia, now dominated by an autocratic power that arrests opponents.