Peace consolidation and conflict resolution in post-authoritarian countries

The 2011 wave of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa region sparked a renewed belief in democracy, peace and human rights across the world. However, the subsequent counter-revolutions, with the military seizing power in Egypt, armed groups seizing the capital in Yemen, and the civil war breaking out in Libya, reveal the challenges that the countries are facing after the regimes are unseated. This study explores the reasons for peace consolidation in transitioning post-authoritarian countries by testing the effects of four alternative approaches for consolidating peace as prescribed in existing literature. As a point of entry, this study examines the case of Tunisia and tests if any of these four alternative approaches have contributed to peace consolidation in Tunisia. The central argument of this study is providing political elites with better alternative means to pursue their political goals through elite pacts utilizing conflict resolution techniques to help the parties overcome hostility and encourage them to find an agreement reduces violence in transitioning post-authoritarian countries. This argument is based on the observed effect of the implementation of a mediation process called "The National Dialogue" initiated by four civil society organizations shortly after the outbreak of the political crisis in late July 2013.