Contents
The Tunisian Revolution
The Purpose of this Website
This site was created by Joshua Gibson and William Woodward to serve as an introduction to the Tunisian Revolution. The aim of this website is to provide an overview of the Tunisian Revolution and an examination of issues relating to the Tunisian Revolution. As with any complex issue, the Tunisian Revolution is multifaceted, and there are numerous angles from which to look at it. Based on materials used in the creation of this website, this analysis of the Tunisian Revolution focused on four major questions. These questions are listed below:
- Was the Tunisian Revolution successful?
- What policies should the people of Tunisia now pursue?
- What should have been or should be the role of the West in the Tunisian Revolution and its aftermath?
- When stability and security run up against liberal democracy, which should prevail or be supported?
These four questions emerged as primary themes in our research, with each one having a multitude of competing answers. In order to help this website’s visitors find information and opinions on these four questions, we have selected ten articles which address at least one of these questions. Links to these articles are provided on this website, so that readers may see and evaluate the arguments and evidence of the articles’ authors for themselves. Each article is accompanied by a brief summary of the author’s position which emphasizes the frame in which they make their argument and policy recommendations the authors make. In addition to these summaries, brief examinations of the values behind the authors’ arguments are included with each article. At the bottom of each article’s page, we have also listed which of the four guiding questions shown above are addressed by the article. To begin examining these articles, please use the menu above to navigate to each article or click here.
In addition to the ten articles, this website also provides a brief overview of the Tunisian Revolution through both text and an animation. To read the overview or watch the animation, please click here.
Additionally, this website includes a podcast in which the website’s creators examine the values which inform their answers to questions about the Tunisian Revolution, including the four questions above. To read more information about this podcast or to listen to the podcast, please click here.
About the Authors
Joshua Gibson and William Woodward are students at Bridgewater College. This website was created as an assignment for their PDP 150 Honors course, taught by Professor Erickson.
A Note About Terminology
Throughout this website, the term “Middle East” is used to describe the geographic regions of the Middle East and North Africa for brevity. Some articles linked to on this website may use the term “Arab World” or its derivatives to describe these regions. With respect to the Berbers and other ethnic groups in the regions, this website avoids the use of the term “Arab World” to describe the Middle East and North Africa.