International Crisis Group Quick-Response Research: Addressing Governance and Security

Over the past month, hundreds of thousands of citizens in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have mobilized to demand greater government accountability and legitimacy. People have demonstrated in the streets, often risking their lives calling for authoritarian leaders to step down. These movements have spread throughout the region causing many analysts to ponder what comes next. This grant will allow the International Crisis Group (ICG) to investigate the relationship between weakening state institutions and the rise of non-state actors as competitors or potential collaborators in fulfilling core state functions; the role of non-state actors in promoting stability and peaceful political transition; the implications of Tunisia's transition on neighbouring countries such as Algeria and Morocco; and the challenge of moving toward a pluralistic democracy that can integrate opposition movements, including moderate political Islam.

The project is expected to produce insight into the driving forces behind the uprising in Tunisia, and what neighbouring regimes are learning from Tunisia's experience: whether to open up or to clamp down.