Tunisian leftists and Islamists were active in fighting Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime, but several of them were also at the forefront of organisations that were concerned with immigrant politics. These were as much related to the French Muslim field as they were to the working and living conditions of immigrants and the fight for social and political equality. Chapter 5 therefore explores the articulation between different types of engagement, as well as the continuity, complementarity and simultaneity of activism in the fields of immigrant and homeland politics. The chapter also looks at the tensions and dissonances that resulted from those two faces of activism. The comparison between Tunisian leftists and Islamists shows how various activists found themselves facing different rules in the field of immigrant politics and how they negotiated these rules in the face of the unequal accumulation of material and symbolic resources. The chapter shows how new perspectives should be considered in order to fully understand Tunisian politics in France, and how ideological and class dimensions sometimes superseded the pro- or anti-regime cleavages.

Arms control and disarmament are among the unfulfilled promises of the UN Charter. Alongside the establishment of an International Peace Force, a Standing Committee on Disarmament should oversee a binding and staged process of universal disarmament, leaving only those arms needed for ensuring internal security. This would require global monitoring and verification, an avoidance of destabilizing forces and building trust among countries. There are both positive recent developments in arms control, and a regression towards arms build-ups eroding the accomplishment of past disarmament proposals. The prevention and abolition of war should be a central focus of renewed global governance, required by fundamental changes in the nature of armed conflict, threats from new technologies and the involvement of new actors beyond states. There are also new capacities for collective good. Proposals for modern comprehensive disarmament must go beyond the simple destruction of weapons to include the adaptation and reconversion of all the economic resources, infrastructure and human resources presently devoted to military forces and the arms industry. Many obstacles are acknowledged and will have to be overcome, but eliminating the anachronism of war will free enormous resources for other, more constructive uses.