Tunisian Fighters in Syria and Iraq: The Paradox of Democratic Openings

With its estimated 3000 fighters, the Tunisian contingent is one of the largest fighting in Syria and Iraq under the banners of the Nusra Front and the islamic State. For many analysts this constitutes a problematic paradox insofar as Tunisia is the only country where a genuine process of democratization has taken place. What explains the attraction of the war in the Levant for many young Tunisians? Aside from facile explanations focused on networks of recruitment that sway impressionable young men, this paper analyses the choice of 'going to Syria' as the product of a long-standing struggle over the legitimacy of the state in the Arab world, or absence thereof. While new social media have certainly facilitated the erasing of borders, they have simply accelerated a process of delegitimization of the state that has its roots in the failed model of economic and social development Tunisia adopted under Ben Ali.'