World Affairs
Oussama Romdhani
June 2017
The drastic cuts in assistance to Tunisia contained in the Trump Administration’s FY 2018 budget request send a disappointing message to the small North African country striving to shield its democratic experiment from the threats of terrorism and instability.
The administration’s budget aims to slash US security assistance to Tunisia by 82%—from $82 million (in FY 2016) to $15 million (in FY 2018) as well as reduce economic assistance by a third.
The administration’s requested budget is unlikely to stand the test of the legislative process, but in Tunisia—a country that is on the front lines of the fight against extremism on a daily basis—news of the request was disheartening. The collective memory of Tunisians carries images of the US providing support for Tunisian school milk programs and other forms of development assistance from the first days of independence. Tunisia, on the other hand, never thought twice, in the 1960’s, before standing with the United States in the Cold War or courageously advocating a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/tunisia-strategic-partner-be-supportedUnless a part of the political dance, an error to be corrected. Congress will likely restore the funding.
