Habib Bourguiba's Diplomatic Thinking And Practice Research

Tunisia is a Mediterranean country with ancient civilization. Whenever it was during the Cartage times or during Islamic Dynamics times, Tunisia was the country with significance. Tunisia got independence from France's colonization in 1956, and entered a new time of modernization. Habib Bourguiba was the creator of modern Tunisia and famous in the worldwide. He raised Bourguibaism and promoted westernization, secularization and modernization in judicature, religion, society and political administrations. While in international scene, he maintained pragmatic and flexible diplomatic policies. His diplomatic practices were rich and varied, and with creativeness. Generally, his diplomatic thoughts were positive and open, and he won much success. Bourguiba's diplomatic thoughts were the manifest of Bourguibaism. During Bipolar time, Bourguiba pursued a west-orient policy but avoided antagonism with the Eastern Bloc. As to international conflicts, he advocated a gradual negotiation approach and objected military approach. Bourguiba believed that the "Third World Countries" should reiterate with the former colonizers and cooperate with them, through which they can exceed their economical development and improve living standard. He rejected extremists and their empty slogans. He denounced extremism among Third World Countries and held that they act from realistic version, with the guide of reason, get de-colonization step by step. Regarding with Arab-Israel conflict, he realized the realistic negotiation approach. It meant getting the lesser from two evils. Bourguiba's diplomatic practices oriented from the national interests of Tunisia, consolidated and preserved Tunisia's independence, obtained a lot of assistance in varied kinds. This paper mainly focuses on the forming and practices of Bourguiba's diplomatic thoughts and discussed the practical and theoretical meaning of the "small country with big diplomacy" pattern.