The Biden administration and Tunisia: Off to a good start

Author Gordon Gray examines how the Biden administration has taken steps to help Tunisia's transition to a more open political and economic system a decade after the Arab Spring.

It’s been nearly a decade since I watched long lines of men and women in Tunisia waiting patiently and proudly to vote in their country’s first free and fair elections. Some brought Tunisian flags to the polling stations on Oct. 23, 2011. Others brought their children to witness the historic elections, which only occurred after widespread popular protests later recognized as the start of the Arab Spring. Those protests had forced Tunisia’s increasingly despotic leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, into exile.

That day was the most memorable one of my tenure as U.S. ambassador to Tunisia. Today, Freedom House lists Tunisia as one of only two free countries in the Middle East and North Africa. But the United States needs to do its part to ensure the country’s transition to democracy continues apace.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill. Click here to view the full article.

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