Lobbying 2016: Tunisia looks to US to entrench democracy
Five years on, the Arab Spring has long since given way to a bitter season of chaos, radicalism and repression.
Only tiny Tunisia continues to buck the trend. And it’s counting on Congress and the Obama administration’s help to live up to its billing as a role model for the rest of the Middle East.
“After decades of dictatorship and several years of transition, Tunisians have won their freedom and democracy,” Presidents Barack Obama and Beji Caid Essebsi declared in a joint op-ed during the Tunisian leader’s visit to Washington last May. “As Tunisians seek to build the Arab world’s newest democracy, they will continue to have a strong friend and partner in the world’s oldest democracy, the United States of America.”
The bilateral relationship has certainly been on an upward swing. The pending aid request from the State Department stands at $140 million, on par with last year’s and up almost tenfold since 2009.
