"Tunisia fragile democracy collapsed" Topic

Tunisia was regarded as the sole success story of Arab Spring with a very fragile democracy put into place to accommodate all parties including hard line fundamentalist Islamists.

However the honeymoon is over with President Kais Saied declaring a state of emergency and effectively seizing power.

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How does this relate to warfare?

Tunisia is home to many islamists some of whom have already committed acts of terrorism in the past.

The destruction of democracy will probably see some of them restart their terrorist activities. It is possible the country may plunge into civil war if Saied can't stabilise his power.

Furthermore Tunisia is relatively close to Italy and any potential instability could result in terrorists as well as more refugees making a beeline for Italy.

I will also personally add that I think it is very possible for France to get involved here given its history in the country and if things go really pair shaped UAE, Turkey and the Russians as they did in Libya.

Democracies are always in danger of collapsing. People get fed up with government inefficiencies and corruption.

Yep, that's how revolutions happen.

I am watching the French situation with interest, and wondering if there will be another one there over the Covid lockdowns.

Of course, there are many other events much closer to home that might spawn one as well.

What sort of kit does the military have?

Democracies are always in danger of collapsing. People get fed up with government inefficiencies and corruption.

And dictatorships are so much more efficient and so much less corrupt!

As with most of the things in the world the topic is not black and white.

Working in the company covering most of the world I had opportunities to visit Egypt, UAE, all of FSU Asian states and most of FSU european-part countries, I have collegues working there as well as in KSA, Kuwait, Qatar.

It is very difficult to succeed in establishing democracy somewhere where it never existed. You don't have the structure, you don't have the right bureacrats with a proper mindset and you population mindset is very different even from us in Russia.
You can't bomb people into democracy – see Lybia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

I can tell you that my SA colleagues have very high opinion on prince Salman and they see him as a reformer and progressive ruler, while we see him running bloody adventure in Yemen and cutting journalists to pieces.

Tunisia was lucky bcs they at least didn't have too much of tribals/religion/nationalism problems we see in other failed Arabian spring countries…but other reasons for failure are there.

People will always go for changes when they're fed up with current government,and we always hope that changes will be for better – these were my hopes in 1991 and in 1993. When new rulers fail to deliver (99% of cases) it all starts again, and depending on number of coubtry problems you have a new revolution or dictatorship.

Most Arabian dictatorship have high level of both state and everyday corruption, you see it starting right in the airport….interesting that under Stalin corruption was very low, as some people were just afraid and others were not even thinking about doing something illegal.

When you found yourself on the wrong side of the state, there was a very high chance to receive a punishment not comparable with what you hoped to get by taking bribes.

I still remember that in 70s when I was a kid we could play till late night, going around the city, leaving keys under the door and nobody was afraid….looks like a SF nowadays.

On the other hand even death penalty in Chnia is not stopping people from taking enormous bribes now.

Bill, Tunisia has a small and rather poorly equipped military. Most military equipment is Western but it is almost universally 1970s/1980s vintage. Air force has extremely limited capabilities both from conventional and counter insurgency perspectives.

Not sure on readiness or how capable troops or officer are.

And dictatorships are so much more efficient and so much less corrupt!

No, but dictators tend to shoot their opposition, then check to see if they really were the opposition. Democracies tend not to do that, usually.

One can have low crime when who ever is in power is making sure that they are the ones benefiting from any crime. Any dictatorship of any color or flavor, is just a mafia organization that fights to eliminate its opponents so its members can benefit.

And dictatorships are so much more efficient and so much less corrupt!

No, but dictators tend to shoot their opposition, then check to see if they really were the opposition. Democracies tend not to do that, usually.

That's sarcasm you know

Sorry, I'm still having trouble reading facial expressions on the internet.

My bad. I forgot the /sarcasmon and /sarcasmoff codes.

Seems the population of Tunisia supports the coup due to the failure of democratic government to provide improvements in living standards.

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