Trouble in Tunisia
07/29/21 • 41 min
Zack, Jenn, and Jen Kirby discuss the political crisis gripping Tunisia following the president’s decision to fire the prime minister and suspend parliament. Tunisia was the big “success story” of the Arab Spring: the one country whose revolution produced a real, albeit rocky, transition to democracy — a democracy that is now in crisis. The gang explains what’s going on, what it all means for Tunisia’s future, and how — or whether — the international community should respond.
References:
Tunisia’s president fired its prime minister and suspended parliament
Is what happened in Tunisia a coup?
A helpful timeline outlining Tunisia’s democratic transition
Tunisia’s imperfect democracy was still a model, wrote Sarah E. Yerkes in 2019
Foreign Policy on the problem with calling Tunisia the Arab Spring’s “lone success story”
Bloomberg’s Hussein Ibish on why this crisis is testing Tunisia’s political divisions
The US secretary of state’s Tunisia tweets
Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Jen Kirby (@j_kirby1), foreign and national security reporter, Vox
Consider contributing to Vox:
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Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
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Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.
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Zack, Jenn, and Jen Kirby discuss the political crisis gripping Tunisia following the president’s decision to fire the prime minister and suspend parliament. Tunisia was the big “success story” of the Arab Spring: the one country whose revolution produced a real, albeit rocky, transition to democracy — a democracy that is now in crisis. The gang explains what’s going on, what it all means for Tunisia’s future, and how — or whether — the international community should respond.
References:
Tunisia’s president fired its prime minister and suspended parliament
Is what happened in Tunisia a coup?
A helpful timeline outlining Tunisia’s democratic transition
Tunisia’s imperfect democracy was still a model, wrote Sarah E. Yerkes in 2019
Foreign Policy on the problem with calling Tunisia the Arab Spring’s “lone success story”
Bloomberg’s Hussein Ibish on why this crisis is testing Tunisia’s political divisions
The US secretary of state’s Tunisia tweets
Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Jen Kirby (@j_kirby1), foreign and national security reporter, Vox
Consider contributing to Vox:
If you value Worldly’s work, please consider making a contribution to Vox:
More to explore:
Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
About Vox:
Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.
Follow us:
Newsletter: Vox Sentences
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode
iSpy
Zack Beauchamp, Jenn Williams, and Jen Kirby discuss the explosive revelations that a number of governments around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Hungary to India, have been using military-grade spyware made by an Israeli firm to secretly hack into the phones of journalists, activists, and political opponents. They explore what we know about the NSO Group, the Israeli company who sold this software; what the technology does; how governments may have used it to spy on critics; and what all of this tells us about the rise of digital authoritarianism.
References:
The Pegasus Project uncovers the potential abuse of NSO Group spyware
The major takeaways from the investigation, according to the Washington Post
And the revelations keep on coming
Hungarian journalists had spyware on their phones
And so did a top rival of India’s prime minister
The Pegasus investigation puts Israel in an uncomfortable position
US and EU officials suspect links between NSO Group and Israeli intelligence
Israel’s defense ministry says “appropriate action” will be taken if NSO violated export permits
Steven Feldstein’s book, The Rise of Digital Repression (and listen to Zack’s interview!)
Israel considered using NSO Group to help track the coronavirus
Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Jen Kirby (@j_kirby1), foreign and national security reporter, Vox
Consider contributing to Vox:
If you value Worldly’s work, please consider making a contribution to Vox:
More to explore:
Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
About Vox:
Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.
Follow us:
Newsletter: Vox Sentences
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Next Episode
Authoritarians without borders
Zack, Jenn, and Jen Kirby look at how authoritarianism has become internationalized, through the lens of two recent news stories: 1) Fox News host Tucker Carlson choosing to broadcast his show from Hungary this week; and 2) a Belarusian Olympian in Tokyo seeking asylum out of fear of punishment by the Lukashenko regime after she criticized her coach on social media. They discuss what happened in both of those cases, as well as what the events tell us about the ways authoritarian governments are expanding their international reach, by developing ties with like-minded influential figures in other countries and by threatening — and, in some cases, kidnapping or even assassinating — dissidents abroad.
References:
Zack on why Tucker Carlson’s trip to Hungary matters.
Why US conservatives admire Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
How Hungary’s democracy died.
The Belarusian Olympian who would not go home.
Here’s the transcript of Belarusian officials pressuring Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya.
Freedom House’s report on the rise of “transnational repression.”
Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Jen Kirby (@j_kirby1), foreign and national security reporter, Vox
Consider contributing to Vox:
If you value Worldly’s work, please consider making a contribution to Vox:
More to explore:
Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
About Vox:
Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.
Follow us:
Newsletter: Vox Sentences
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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