Ever since the African Union (AU) granted Israel an ‘observer status’, the organization has found itself entangled in a pitiful web of political maneuvering and controversy. Only two months earlier, this same organization has joined rest of the world in condemning Israel for violating the international law with its reckless bombardment of Gaza, targeting civilians, […]
Since the 1990’s Islamist groups have emerged in Algeria, but over the years their allegiances and identities have shifted according to geopolitical trends.
From the outside, Algeria seems relatively stable, especially in contrast to Libya and Egypt. Behind the scenes, however, a succession crisis is underway
NATO’s cooperation with Algeria offers potential in combating international human trafficking networks. Reviving the ‘regional NATO’ plan for a joint military organization of Saharan states would allow governments to better disrupt the routes used to transport many migrants to the Mediterranean coast.
Algeria just re-elected its longest-serving president for a fourth term, in what many describe as a fraught campaign punctuated by violence and citizen apathy. While the April 17 vote yielded no surprise, it unleashed a pertinent debate about the future of Algeria’s seemingly impermeable regime. In an awkwardly short ceremony, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sworn in on […]
Millions of citizens of African countries will go to the polls in Presidential, parliamentary/legislative, state/provincial, and local elections in 2014. We will surely cover many of those here at the FPA. Here is an early preview of which elections are happening where (as of January 8) with brief commentary on several of them: Southern Africa: […]
On Friday, we will look back on the 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and how that tragic event in Dallas changed history. Also, on Friday, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI will pay a state visit to Washington, D.C. and meet with President Barack Obama to look forward at how both our nations […]
Check out this very insightful piece from Ahmed Charai on Huffington Post, “A Regal Response to an Undue Provocation.” Ahmed makes a very good point that what makes Morocco stand out in a region of instability is King Mohammed VI’s visionary leadership. (It goes to show what I have always believed that good leadership, an open […]
A few weeks ago, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Morocco and the Polisario Front to “continue negotiations without preconditions and in good faith […] with a view to achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution” to end the Western Sahara conflict.” (The Polisario, a Cold War era separatist […]
The U.N. Security Council is currently debating a draft resolution on whether or not to extend the peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara (MINURSO) ahead of the April 30, 2013 deadline. For more than 20 years, the U.N. Security Council has debated, then renewed the mandate of this U.N. body rather perfunctorily—needlessly prolonging a nearly […]
As the Atlantic Community examines “What can the US do to promote security in the Sahel?” the discussion must focus on the importance of U.S. partnerships in the region. Too often, meaningful and successful U.S. intervention to address conflicts and threats to security is erroneously envisioned as a going-it-alone undertaking. It doesn’t have to […]
With the French military intervention in Mali shifting to a more sustained action, the reality of the long, hard slog in the Mali region has triggered inevitable questions by diplomats, policy planners and many others as to what defines success – and what comes next? Most mouthed answer: “Somalia.” That’s correct. The place […]
“The United States is struggling to confront an uptick in threats from the world’s newest jihadist hot spot with limited intelligence and few partners to help as the Obama administration weighs how to keep Islamic extremists in North Africa from jeopardizing national security without launching war. We want to put up a map here and […]
In light of France’s recent involvement in Mali, questions about the trajectory and length of this war are naturally coming to the fore. For me, a phrase that I keep thinking about is “the law of conservation of problems,” which comes from an environmental science text I once used. Featured in the text to […]
We are now deep into year two of the Arab world convulsions. Not one country across the North African-Middle East arc is settled. Even where it sounds quiet it is not. Two years from the first cry of freedom, very few things are how the outside world predicted. As Egyptians vote for their president in […]