Several months after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Governor David Beasley and Henry Deneen experienced much success from an international conference they led in Tunis, Tunisia. Entitled “Tunisia and the New Global Economy”, the conference brought together American and Western experts – on economics, business climate, law, foreign direct investment, information technology, trade policy, business practices, etc. – with elites from the Tunisian government and business sectors. Over four days of conferencing, Governor Beasley and others shared with their Tunisian hosts the legal and economic factors that make the United States a magnet for investment and economic growth, and how South Carolina, in particular, attracted $22 billion in private capital during Governor Beasley’s administration – putting that state at first U.S. ranking for employment expansion and personal income growth. Simultaneously, each conference expert frankly addressed Tunisia’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of investment risk, property rights, transparency, stability, legal remedies, etc., engaging the country’s top leadership on the essentials of capitalism, economic freedom, and growth. Perhaps just as important, however, were the personal and business relationships that the Tunisia conference launched: For example, one delegate now imports Tunisian olive oil for U.S. grocery shelves. Another established a business outpost in neighboring Algeria, and two others established a French-African trade. Another is now at work on African HIV/AIDS issues. Another has branched-off into Morocco and neighboring countries. Several U.S. expatriates are now connected to, and quietly aiding, Tunisian government officials.

As a consequence, the elite Tunisians and the largely American conference delegation they hosted, even three years later, no longer regard each other as potential or actual enemies divided by culture, religion, and the Atlantic. Now unafraid of each other and able to talk about anything – from trade barriers to tax climate to business deals, from our kids to our marriages to pop culture, from the Quran to the Bible to The Wealth of Nations – we now see each other as business allies and friends sharing a common humanity. CGS co-founder Henry Deneen relates an anecdote that captures the import of this kind of private outreach by Americans at a time of lethal tension: “On September 20, 2001 – just nine days after the 9/11 attacks – my wife and I met in Tunisia with local conference planners, including the President and Board Members of the Tunisian/American Chamber of Commerce. They were downcast, certain we had come to cancel the conference in light of the attacks. Once we assured them of our desire to move forward, our hosts told us, with great emotion, that they would never, ever forget us! That was a great moment, the kind of moment Gov. Beasley and I want to replicate over and over again throughout the world by means of CGS.”

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