Saerom Han provides a reassessment of Tunisian democratisation by exploring why and how unemployed protesters became articulated with the so-called War on Terror within a liberal democratic framework. This book is the first attempt to critically examine the relationship between democratisation and securitisation in Tunisia. It also provides a novel way of thinking about socioeconomic protests in and beyond Tunisia by discussing how their rationalities and techniques can sustain and at the same time challenge the neoliberal regime of power.
Drawing on field research and a Foucauldian approach to democracy, resistance and security, this book situates the democracy-security nexus in the context of the neoliberal regime. It shows that the dominant counter-terrorism practices, rather than being a threat to democracy, partly served as a governing mechanism for a neoliberal modality of democracy by managing problematic actors such as unemployed protesters who demanded radical changes in political and economic orders. This book also discusses how the protesters reproduced and at the same time challenged the ways that they were securitised, complicating the relationship between domination and resistance in post-2011 Tunisia.
The first attempt to critically examine the relationship between democratisation and securitisation in Tunisia.
Saerom Han is an Assistant Professor in Political Science and International Relations at Sookmyung Women's University in South Korea. Previously, she was an ESRC NINE DTP Postdoctoral Research Fellow in School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. Her research interests include political economy, development, security, governance and civil society in North Africa. She has authored articles in ILR Review, Social Movement Studies and Security Dialogue.
