Tunisia - An Arab Anomaly

Safwan M. Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University. He holds a senior research scholar appointment at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. Previously vice dean of Columbia Business School, he earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1988. Masri lives in New York and Amman. Lisa Anderson is the James T. Shotwell Professor Emerita of International Relations at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and former president of the American University in Cairo. Her books include The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1820-1980 (1986) and Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia, 2003).

In Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly, Safwan M. Masri explores the factors that have shaped the country's exceptional experience. He traces Tunisia's history of reform in the realms of education, religion, and women's rights, arguing that the seeds for today's relatively liberal and democratic society were planted as far back as the middle of the nineteenth century. Masri argues that Tunisia stands out less as a model that can be replicated in other Arab countries, but rather as an anomaly, as its history of reformism set it on a separate trajectory from the rest of the region. The narrative explores notions of identity, the relationship between Islam and society, and the hegemonic role of religion in shaping educational, social, and political agendas across the Arab region. Based on interviews with dozens of experts, leaders, activists, and ordinary citizens, and a synthesis of a rich body of knowledge, Masri provides a sensitive, often personal, account that is critical for understanding not only Tunisia but also the broader Arab world.