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61. Al-Qaeda in North Africa: Local and Global Jihad

Author:
Jake Lipton
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On April 14, suicide bombers unsuccessfully targeted the U.S. consulate and an American cultural center in Casablanca, four days after another group of bombers blew themselves up in a confrontation with city police. On April 11, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC) claimed responsibility for two suicide car bombings in Algiers, one targeting the prime minister's office and the other a police station. No group has claimed responsibility for the Moroccan incidents, but together with the Algerian attacks -- which killed 33 and wounded up to 330 -- they indicate that both northwestern Africa and the United States face an acute threat from established regional militant groups allied with international terrorist networks.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
North Africa

62. Favourable Situations for the Jihadist Recruitment. The Neighborhood of Principe Alfonso (Ceuta, Spain)

Author:
Javier Jordán and Humberto Trujillo
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:
Athena Intelligence
Abstract:
The Spanish mass media have transmitted during the past weeks various news concerning the presence of jihadist activities in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (two enclaves of Spain in North Africa): including the detention of suspected jihadists implicated in the terrorist attack of Casablanca in May 2003; the expulsion from the Spanish Army of three members belonging to professional troops for their supposed sympathy with radical Islam; and the appearance of a declaration on a internet forum from a group called Nadim al-Magrebi, calling for jihad against Spain and demanding expressively for the 'liberation' of both cities through terrorist attacks.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, and North Africa

63. Libya and the United States: The Next Steps

Author:
Ronald Bruce St. Jon
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
On the evening of December 19, 2003, the Libyan Foreign Ministry issued a statement, the product of nine months of tough negotiations with the United Kingdom and United States, renouncing weapons of mass destruction and related missile delivery systems. The statement said Libya had “decided, with its own free will, to get rid of these substances, equipment and programmes and to be free from all internationally banned weapons.” It added Libya intended to comply with the Missile Technology Control Regime, the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, and international biological and chemical weapons agreements and treaties. It pledged to “take these measures in a transparent way that could be proved, including accepting immediate international inspection.” Soon after the issuance of this statement, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi publicly endorsed the move, terming it a “wise decision and a courageous step.”
Topic:
International Relations and Security
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Middle East, Libya, and North Africa

64. An unlikely match or a marriage in the making? EU-GCC relations in a changing security environment

Author:
Helle Malmvig
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The EU hopes to play a more active role in the Gulf region. Despite the region's obvious strategic importance the EU has until recently focussed on the so-called Mediterranean countries in North Africa and the Levant. The Gulf in turn has been heavily dominated by the US politically and militarily, and the EU has at best played a secondary role to America on issues of trade and liberalization.
Topic:
Security and International Organization
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

65. Al-Qaeda's North African Franchise: The GSPC Regional Threat

Author:
Emily Hunt
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On September 29, Algerians will vote on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a policy that would provide amnesty for most of the one-thousand Islamic terrorists the government believes are still hiding in Algeria and neighboring countries. Between three hundred and five hundred of the terrorists still at large belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). This cadre of Afghanistan-trained, al-Qaeda-linked militants was behind the September 24 ambush of a police patrol east of Algiers that killed eight people. These holdouts have shown no interest in a government amnesty, despite the Algerian population's clearly waning interest in Islamist-inspired political violence.
Topic:
Security, Peace Studies, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and North Africa

66. Giving Meaning to "Never Again": Seeking an Effective Response to the Crisis in Darfur and Beyond

Author:
Cheryl Igiri and Princeton M. Lyman
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
April 2004 marked ten years since genocide ravaged Rwanda. The anniversary recalls the horrific way in which some 800,000 Rwandans lost their lives and serves as an unforgettable reminder of the international community's failure to prevent that genocide. This failure pervades the current consciousness as the tenor rises over how to react to credible reports of ethnic cleansing in Sudan.
Topic:
Security, Genocide, and International Law
Political Geography:
Sudan, North Africa, and Rwanda

67. Political Securitisation and Democratisation in the Maghreb: Ambiguous Discourses and Fine-tuning Practices for a Security Partnership

Author:
Said Haddadi
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Said Haddadi examines the interaction between security and democracy discourses and their mutually affecting relationship within the framework of the political and security basket of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. In this context, Haddadi places special emphasis on the role that institutions and practices within the EMP may play in contributing to the convergence of security and democracy views between the EU and North Africa. Against this background, this paper assesses the main arguments that underlie the political and security partnership within the EMP. The focus is on the process that led to the EU's 'securitization' of the Maghreb, that is, the EU's prioritization of security concerns relating to North Africa. Haddadi' s analysis of the interaction between security and democracy discourses in the EU and in North Africa points to a number of inconsistencies and dilemmas that are not sufficiently addressed by the institutions and practices of the EMP.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Democratization
Political Geography:
Europe, North Africa, and Maghreb

68. Sudan: Towards an Incomplete Peace

Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
With the signing on 25 September 2003 of a framework agreement on security arrangements, the Sudanese government and the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA) are closer to peace than at any time in the past twenty years. However, considerable hurdles remain before any final deal is signed, and a separate, intensifying war in the west already threatens to undermine it. As the parties press forward with the last phases of negotiation, the international community's engagement should intensify in support of the final deal, in preparation for helping with implementation if successful, and in ensuring coordination between the main peace process and the conflict in the west.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Ethnic Conflict, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:
South Asia, Sudan, and North Africa

69. Algeria: Unrest and Impasse in Kabylia

Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
In late April 2001, lethal provocations by elements of Algeria's National Gendarmerie triggered protracted and deadly rioting in Kabylia. That the unrest from Kabylia's Black Spring continues to this day reflects the political system's nation-wide failure to adopt reforms that address its deficit of democratic representation. Neither the regime, nor the Kabyle political parties nor the so-called "Coordinations" that lead the protest movement in the region has to date proposed a serious formula for ending the impasse. The recent invitation by the new head of the government, Ahmed Ouyahia, to the protest movement to engage in dialogue over its platform is a welcome, if belated, development. But more will be needed to enable the Algerian polity to resolve what is much more a national problem than the local or ethnic disturbance it is often mistakenly portrayed as.
Topic:
Security, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa, Algeria, and North Africa

70. The European Union's Mediterranean Partnership

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In the 1990s, the end of the East-West confrontation brought about sweeping changes in the regions beyond the Mediterranean further than in the European East. During the Cold War many Middle Eastern and North African countries had received support from the USSR and sided to varying extent and in different ways with it. Thus, the Mediterranean region had been regarded by NATO as its “southern flank”. In fact, conflict in that area could give way to a “horizontal escalation” and shift the confrontation from regional to global level.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and North Africa