Tunisia and the Arab Spring: Origins, Causes, and Consequences

The origins and causes of the Arab Spring in Tunisia are steeped in the country's long, diverse, and paradoxical history of foreign influence, colonialism, independence, modernity, and plurality as well as the habitual oppression of religious and political expression amid a perpetually beleaguered economy. Nearly ten years after the revolutions began in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Tunisia has emerged as the sole democratic state of the Arab Spring. The thesis will explore US foreign policy toward the region before, during, and after the Arab Spring. The analysis will examine how or if the United States Government (USG) properly employed the instruments of national power to achieve national security and foreign policy objectives during the Arab Spring in the MENA.