What to Read on the Tunisian Revolution

The Brutal Truth About Tunisia -- Robert Fisk

It's the same old problem for us in the West. We mouth the word "democracy" and we are all for fair elections --providing the Arabs vote for whom we want them to vote for.

Neocon "Human Rights" Enthusiasts Notably Silent on Tunisia -- Daniel Luban

What explains this glaring disparity? The answer is too obvious to need much elaboration: Iran is a rival of the U.S., and more particularly Israel, whereas Tunisia’s President Ben Ali has been a U.S. collaborator in the war on terror.

Why the Tunisian Revolution Won't Spread -- Stephen M. Walt

In fact, the history of world revolution suggests that this sort of revolutionary cascade is quite rare, and even when some sort of revolutionary contagion does take place, it happens pretty slowly and is often accompanied by overt foreign invasion.

Why Tunisia's Revolution Is Islamist-Free -- Michael Koplow

Unlike in Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and most other secular Arab autocracies, the main challenge to the Tunisian regime has not come from Islamist opposition but from secular intellectuals, lawyers, and trade unionists. The absence of a strong Islamist presence is the result of an aggressive attempt by successive Tunisian regimes, dating back over a half-century, to eliminate Islamists from public life.