Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding Hosts Former Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki
President Moncef Marzouki presents at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown ACMCU).
By Elizabeth Koenck
Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding held a discussion with the former president of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, regarding the future of democracy and authoritarianism in the Middle East on October 2, 2023.
Marzouki was the first modern Tunisian president voted in through a free and fair election process. The Tunisian people elected him to the Constituent after the 2011 Arab Spring Revolution, and the Assembly appointed him to the presidency on December 12, 2011. He lost the presidential election to Beji Caid Essebsi in 2014, ending his first term in office, he ran again unsuccessfully in 2019. Today, Marzouki continues to fight for the future of democracy in Tunisia from his home abroad in Paris, where he lives in exile due to convictions by Tunisian courts.
The discussion began with a history of the Arab Spring and the rise of democracy in the Arab World from Marzouki. He argued that the revolution in Tunisia was only the first wave of the Arab Spring and that it was followed by six more unsuccessful attempts at democratization in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Sudan.
In his opening remarks, Markouzi stated that he “did not know” what is next on the horizon for Tunisia or the Middle East, but that they are entering a new stage of the revolution with potential for more violence. Despite his concerns, however, Marzouki emphasized his hope that Tunisia will be able to build a strong, democratic government.
To center the event in DC, the moderator, Nader Hashemi, asked about how the American perspective on Tunisia warps the underlying nature of the conflict between autocracy and democracy in the Middle East. Marzouki responded that “there is a contradiction on Western policy in the Arab World: the West both wants to promote democracy, yet supports undemocratic governments.”
During the event, Marzouki accepted questions from the audience, which revolved around the relationship between weak institutions and state breakdown, Chinese influence in the Middle East, the long-term success of revolutions and democracy, migration in Tunisia, the issue of the Western Sahara, and the systemic factors that impacted the failure of the Tunisian democratic experiment.
Marzouki shared many key ideas during his discussion. He affirmed that the Tunisian Revolution was “the beginning of the beginning” and that much more is to come, even if the path is not linear. He also argued for patience for the long-term journey that Tunisia and the Arab World as a whole face. Marzouki concluded by emphasizing that Western policy focuses on short-term benefits, not long-term stability. He urged Western thinkers to consider the future of the Arab World, because the consequences of not doing so are severe—not only for countries like Tunisia, but also for Western democracies themselves.