This paper will examine the intersection between neoliberalism, higher education and national security in post-uprising Tunisia, with a focus on questions of political subjectivity, hierarchies of citizenship and ‘stratified’ sovereignty (Hobson 2014). It starts from the premise that national security and higher education are two central institutions where local and global power are often (re)produced, entangled and contested. In particular, in relation to the processes associated with neoliberal ‘reform’, including denationalization of state policies, marketization of public goods, individualization of formerly collective responsibilities, and the exclusion and criminalization of ‘problematic communities’. Though focusing on the post-uprising period, this paper will briefly sketch out the historical dimensions of Tunisia’s ‘asymmetrical' state formation (Hibou 2015) in relation to higher education and national security as prominent sites of power. Guided by Wilder’s (2015) concept of (neo)colonial ‘legal diversity,’ it will examine the mixture of legal orders, institutions and discourses that continue to bind Tunisia to a hierarchically ordered global system. The paper will also weave in consideration of the role of powerful states, including France and the US, as well as international and multi-lateral institutions (e.g. NATO, the EU, WTO and World Bank), and (trans)national private interests in shaping current struggles over the meaning and substance of ‘economic development,’ ‘security’ and ‘citizenship.’ It will be argued that projects of ‘reform’ around national security and higher education are useful heuristics through which to examine these struggles, and to better understand change and continuity in the post-uprising period. This paper will conclude by considering alternative political projects and forms of knowledge-production that such struggles have engendered, in particular those that call for a re-imagining and re-structuring of the state in a way that works towards equality of sovereignty and of citizenship.