Tunisia's Historic Elections

and Coming Challenges

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

National Press Club

529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Zenger Room

Washington DC 20045

Speakers:

His Excellency Mohamed Ezzine Chelaifa

Tunisian Ambassador to the United States

Jeffrey England

Deputy Regional Director for MENA, National Democratic Institute

(arriving from Tunisia where he observed the elections)

Stephen McInerney

Executive Director of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)

Daniel Brumberg

Special Advisor, United States Institute of Peace

and Professor, Georgetown University

Moderator and Speaker:

Dr. William Lawrence

Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy

As the international community rallies to confront the so-called Islamic State (ISIS)

and other aspects of regional and global turbulence, revolutionary Tunisia has continued to

surprise and surpass expectations. It has become, after nearly four years, the Arab world's

longest and most profound democratic experiment. On Sunday, Tunisia completed its first

landmark elections following passage of a unprecedented, consensual and inclusive

constitution. Preliminary results of the elections will coincide with this event, for which we

have assembled some of the leading commentators on Tunisian politics in Washington,

D.C. Please join us for first hand accounts from the polls and insight into the breaking

news coming from #tnelec and across Tunisia. The event will include critical analysis of

the emerging narratives of what just happened (such as "old regime restoration," "secular

victory," "Islamist defeat," "the conservatives won" or "the democrats won.") Panelists will

also be asked to offer commentary and predictions on the presidential elections in three

weeks and will outline key challenges facing Tunisia, as well as making the case for

increasing U.S. engagements in Tunisia to support democracy.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES:

Tunisian ambassador

His Excellency Mohamed Ezzine Chelaifa presented his credentials as Tunisia's ambassador to the United States on March 10, 2014, his fourth ambassadorial posting. Chelaifa was born in the coastal town of Mahdia, Tunisia and attended Aix-Marseille University, earning a bachelor's degree in political science, a masters in international relations, and a Ph.D. in economics. Chelaifa joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983 and served in Madrid, where he and his wife Laila's two sons were born. Chelaifa's first posting to Washington came in 1996, when he was named deputy chief of mission, serving until 1999. He has served as ambassador to South Africa and Spain and briefly as Tunisia's first ambassador to Australia. Chelaifa speaks English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Jeff England Jeffrey England is Deputy Regional Director for NDI's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division. From 2009 to 2012, Mr. England served as NDI's Resident Country Director for Morocco and Algeria and was the Institute's representative for the Maghreb North Africa until offices opened in Tunisia and Libya in mid-2011. Prior to assuming that post, Mr. England spent four years managing the Institutes's Maghreb portfolio from Washington, DC. Mr. England also opened the NDI office in Mauritania. He spearheaded cross-regional collaboration initiatives, including the launch of the Aswat platform, one of the first multilingual online hubs for democratic activists across the MENA region. He has led development of transparency initiatives, such as the launch of Morocco's first legislative citizen monitoring initiative, as well as the initial domestic election observation training and networking for Algeria, Tunisia, and Libyan activists prior to the Arab Spring. He has led and served on elections assessments and observation missions in Algeria, Bosnia and Herzogovina, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank.

Stephen McInerney is Executive Director of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and a leading advocate for enhanced U.S.-Tunisian relations. He previously served as POMED's Advocacy Director from 2007 to 2010. He has extensive experience in the Middle East and North Africa, including graduate studies of Middle Eastern politics, history, and the Arabic language at the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo. He has spoken on Middle East affairs with numerous media outlets including BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and CBS News. His writing on Middle East Affairs and U.S. policy has been published by Foreign Affairs, The Daily Star, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post. He received a Master's degree from Stanford University.

Brumberg Daniel Brumberg is a Special Advisor at the United States Institute of Peace, where he focuses on democratization and reform in the Middle East and wider Islamic world. He is also Co-Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University. Prior to Georgetown, he was a Visiting Professor at Emory University, a Visiting Fellow at the Carter Center, and a Lecturer at the University of Chicago's Social Science Master's Program. Brumberg is the author of
Reinventing Khomeini, The Struggle for Reform in Iran and the Co-Editor of Conflict Identity and Reform in the Muslim World, Challenges for US Engagement. The author of numerous articles on political and social change in the Islamic World, Brumberg has served as a consultant to the US Department of State and USAID. A Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, he speaks French and Arabic and has lived, studied and worked across the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

William Lawrence

William Lawrence is Director for Middle East and North Africa programs at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. He is also President of the American Tunisian Association, a senior fellow at POMED, and a visiting professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School. He was North Africa director from 2011 to 2013 at International Crisis Group. He previously served in a number of positions at the U.S. State Department, including as senior advisor for global engagement in the Bureau of Oceans and International and Scientific Affairs, where he advised the White House on core initiatives associated with President Obama's Cairo speech and co-created the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology Program (GIST), the U.S. Science Envoy Program, and the Maghreb Digital Library. He served in the U.S. embassies in Tripoli in Washington as officer in charge of Libyan and Tunisian affairs. He is one author of After the Uprisings: Political Transition in Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen, and has published post-Arab spring analysis and op-eds in Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Figaro, Slate Afrique, Jeune Afrique, Al-Hayat and Sharq al-Awsat and with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He also co-produced five documentary films and 14 albums of North African music, including the first internationally released Arab rap song.

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