Many University faculty focus their instruction on the past in the hopes that their students may apply the lessons learned to the future. Today, though, the University's Center for International Studies is taking an opportunity to teach about the present by holding a forum at 5 p.m. in Nau Auditorium that will analyze the ongoing political upheaval in the Middle East. The event is called "Revolution in Tunisia, Egypt & Beyond: Democracy on the Horizon?" and will feature two University faculty members - Politics Prof. William Quandt and Lecturer in Arabic Miled Faiza - who have deep background knowledge of the region. Nejib Ayachi, the president of The Maghreb Center, an organization in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to improving knowledge of North African affairs, as well as a panel of Tunisian and Egyptian students from the University will join in the discussion. Given the importance of this region in world affairs, this group will provide students with an inside look at rapidly unfolding events that are likely to affect the professional lives of those pursuing careers in foreign policy as well as the civic lives of anyone who plans to vote in a future U.S. election.
The fact that the University has faculty members with so much personal experience in the countries that are currently roiled by pro-democracy demonstrations is a tremendous asset to students who are attempting to make sense of the situation. As a staff member of the National Security Council during the 1970s, Quandt participated in the negotiations leading up to the Camp David Accords and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Faiza's ties to the region run even deeper - he was born in Tunisia, the country where the contemporary cycle of unrest began in late December.
Faiza said he hopes to draw on his life in Tunisia during his talk. "I'm going to speak as a Tunisian who grew up there and witnessed the coup d'etat that brought [recently deposed dictator Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali into power," he explained. He also mentioned that he would spend some time focusing on the role of social media in the protests, adding yet another dimension of relevance for students interested in communications technology.
One of the most perceptive insights that Faiza provided when previewing the forum was his comparison of the events in Tunisia to those immediately preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall. "A few days after the revolution began, a friend of mine - who is a judge in Tunisia
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