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How Tunisia Became the Only Real Arab Spring Success Story
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How Tunisia Became the Only Real Arab Spring Success Story

Mark Leon Goldberg's avatar
Mark Leon Goldberg
Oct 26, 2017
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How Tunisia Became the Only Real Arab Spring Success Story
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Safwan Masri set out with a simple question: of all the countries caught in the turmoil of the Arab Spring, how is it that Tunisia was the only country to successfully replace a long ruling despot with a more or less functioning democracy? His new book Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly takes a deep dive into that question, examining Tunisia's history, politics and, crucially some decades old educational reforms.

This is a very interesting conversation about both the Arab Spring, and Tunisia's unique experience. It is the Arab Spring success story--so far at least--and Safwan Masri helps me understand why.

Safwan Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University.

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