Since July 25, 2021, the U.S. government has cut portions of foreign assistance for Tunisia in order to demonstrate concern about the country’s authoritarian turn under President Kaïs Saïed. Those cuts have disproportionately targeted economic assistance, including support for Tunisia’s severely threatened civil society, compared to security assistance. President Joe Biden’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2024 follows that pattern, significantly cutting economic aid to Tunisia while keeping security assistance at nearly the same level.
In a new fact sheet, “U.S. Aid for Tunisia Since Kaïs Saïed’s July 2021 Coup,” POMED’s Sheridan Cole and Seth Binder outline how the Biden administration has responded to Saïed’s coup through U.S. foreign assistance for Tunisia, as well as the steps Congress has subsequently taken to encourage the administration to make Tunisia’s democratic decline a higher national security priority.
|
Advancing Democracy Overseas – Not Isolationism – Protects American Interests, writes Tess McEnery and Patrick Quirk in the National Interest