Sarah Yerkes is a fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on Tunisia’s political, economic, and security developments as well as state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa. Yerkes is a regular contributor to Diwan and last week she co-authored, with Perry Cammack, an article on U.S. threats to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. She also interviewed Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed last July for Diwan. Yerkes sat for an interview with Diwan in early January to explain the ongoing demonstrations in Tunisia and what they mean for the country’s leadership.