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52. The Drivers of Insecurity in Mauritania
- Author:
- Anouar Boukhars
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The trans-Saharan region is emerging as a hotbed of instability and insecurity. A confluence of forces, from the revolts in North Africa and the proliferation of weapons to transnational trafficking of illicit goods and terrorist activity led by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, are generating acute interest in this part of the world.
- Topic:
- Security, Corruption, Islam, and Fragile/Failed State
- Political Geography:
- Arabia, North Africa, and Mauritania
53. Globalizing West African oil: US 'energy security' and the global economy
- Author:
- Sam Raphael and Doug Stokes
- Publication Date:
- 07-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- This article examines the nature of US oil intervention in West Africa and in particular the ways in which US strategic policy is increasingly being wedded to energy security. It argues that academic debates of a 'new oil imperialism' overplays the geostrategic dimensions of US policy, which in turn underplays the forms of globalization promoted by Washington in the postwar world. Specifically, the US has long sought to 'transnationalize' economies in the developing world, rather than pursue a more mercantilist form of economic nationalism. This article argues that US oil intervention in Africa conforms to this broader picture, whereby processes of transnationalization and interstate competition are being played out against the backdrop of African oil. The recent turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa will add to these dynamics in interesting and unpredictable ways.
- Topic:
- Security and Oil
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, Middle East, North Africa, and West Africa
54. Striking a Balance Between Norms and Interests in Italian Foreign Policy: The Balkans and Libya
- Author:
- Valérie Vicky Miranda
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- To what extent is foreign policy driven by norms and/or by interests? Considering the main trends of Italian foreign policy after World War II and two case studies, the Balkans and Libya, this paper investigates the role played by norms and interests and the interconnection between the two in Italian foreign policy. In the Balkans, norms and interests have neatly dovetailed: supporting democratization and the rule of law has also meant furthering Italian security and economic interests in the region. By contrast, Libya was the theatre of an essentially interest-driven foreign policy. Nevertheless, the Italian government's response to the Libyan crisis between March and May 2011 has interestingly marked a rupture from the recent past.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia, Libya, Kosovo, Balkans, North Africa, and Italy
55. Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges After Qadhafi
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- As the recent upsurge of violence dramatically illustrates, the militias that were decisive in ousting Qadhafi's regime are becoming a significant problem now that it is gone. Their number is a mystery: 100 according to some; three times that others say. Over 125,000 Libyans are said to be armed. The groups do not see themselves as serving a central authority; they have separate procedures to register members and weapons, arrest and detain suspects; they repeatedly have clashed. Rebuilding Libya requires addressing their fate, yet haste would be as perilous as apathy. The uprising was highly decentralised; although they recognise it, the local military and civilian councils are sceptical of the National Transitional Council (NTC), the largely self-appointed body leading the transition. They feel they need weapons to defend their interests and address their security fears. A top-down disarmament and demobilisation effort by an executive lacking legitimacy would backfire. For now the NTC should work with local authorities and militias – and encourage them to work with each other – to agree on operational standards and pave the way for restructured police, military and civilian institutions. Qadhafi centralised power without building a central state. His successors must do the reverse.
- Topic:
- Security, Political Violence, Regime Change, and Popular Revolt
- Political Geography:
- Asia and North Africa
56. The Problematic Fields in European Neighborhood Policy: Human Security and Neighborhood Relations
- Author:
- Murat Necip Arman
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Abstract:
- With the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, the EU reached at borders with new neighbors stretching from Northern Africa, to Middle East and Southern Caucasus. Despite their structural instability, those three regions possess rich energy resources. The EU promulgated the blue prints of the Union's future relations with the new neighbors in March 2003 with the paper on "Wider Europe Neighborhood: a New Framework for Our Relationships with the Eastern and Southern Neighbors." The framework redefined the basic parameters of the so-called neighborhood policy. The major difference that differs the neighborhood policy from the rest of the Union policies with non-member countries is its unique approach to the concept of human security. Human security is a distinct security approach distancing "the state" from being the major subject of security and instead individuals have been placed gradually in the center of relations between the EU and Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This study which tries to lure attention to the symbiotic bonds between human security and security community approaches, unfolds the problematic aspects of the neighborhood policy which is based on human security and offers some solutions to those problems.
- Topic:
- Security
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and North Africa
57. Shaky Foundations: An Assessment of the UN's Rule Of Law Support Agenda
- Author:
- Bruce Jones and Camino Kavanagh
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- As we began the process of drafting this review, citizens across the Middle East and North Africa took to the streets to demand an end to the abusive practices of the security services, more representative and responsive government institutions, the protection of their rights, greater access to economic opportunity, participation in decision-making, and access to justice. They began demanding, in short, the rule of law.
- Topic:
- Security, Cold War, Democratization, International Cooperation, Post Colonialism, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arabia, and North Africa
58. How to revitalize the dialogue between NATO and the Maghreb countries?
- Author:
- Pierre Razoux
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- At a time when the Atlantic Alliance has just adopted in Lisbon its new strategic concept which acknowledges the importance of the partnerships linking it to its partners, it is worth asking a few questions about ways of giving fresh impetus to the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), especially with the Maghreb countries. Why this focus on North Africa? For two reasons. First of all because cooperation between the Alliance and the Maghreb countries has not yet reached the same level as cooperation with the Mashreq countries, despite some positive signs that this could change for the better in the near future. Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia have in fact reached agreement with NATO on individual cooperation plans (ICP) which it is hoped will enable them to put in place those partnership actions best suited to their needs, while at the same time rationalizing the Alliance's assistance effort. Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia have also signed agreements with NATO on the protection of classified information which make it possible for them to have access to a more ambitious level of cooperation.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, NATO, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Algeria, North Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and Mauritania
59. The Offshore Camps of the European Union: At the Border of Humanity
- Author:
- Miriam Ticktin
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Immigrant and asylum-seeker camps like those in Libya and Morocco are the creation, manifestation, and part of the new, borderless Europe. They consist of a new post-colonial, new-liberal border-zone, a space continuously negotiated by the movement of people, new forms of surveillance technology, and new processes of supranational government. The camps are a response to both a “security” and “humanitarian” crisis, brought into reality through two governing regimes: one of policing and one of protection. The precise mechanisms produce spaces which not only divide people into citizens of one nation-state or another, but produce certain populations as surplus humans.
- Topic:
- Security, Human Rights, Migration, and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Libya, North Africa, and Morocco
60. North Africa: New Challenges, Old Regimes, and Regional Security
- Author:
- Claire Spencer
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- North Africa is often loosely defined, but for the purposes of this paper, it encompasses the states of the Arab Maghreb Union (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia) together with Egypt.1 With the exception of Mauritania, this group of states lies on the northern littoral of the African continent, between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Sahara to the south. This contiguity, however, has not automatically made for a cohesive region; differences between political and economic trajectories have overridden the social solidarities that still unite the peoples of North Africa.
- Topic:
- Security, Islam, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Libya, Algeria, North Africa, and Egypt