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101. Racial Formations in Africa and the Middle East: A Transregional Approach

Author:
Hisham Aïdi, Marc Lynch, Zachariah Mampilly, Diana S. Kim, Parisa Vaziri, Denis Regnier, Sean Jacobs, Wendell Marsh, Stephen J. King, Eric Hahonou, Paul A. Silverstein, Afifa Ltifi, Zeyad el Nabolsy, Bayan Abubakr, Yasmin Moll, Zachary Mondesire, Abdourahmane Seck, Amelie Le Renard, Sumayya Kassamali, Noori Lori, Nathaniel Mathews, Sabria Al-Thawr, Gokh Amin Alshaif, Deniz Duruiz, Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Efrat Yerday, Noah Salomon, and Ann McDougall
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
In February 2020, the editors of this volume organized a POMEPS workshop that explored the origins of the disciplinary divide between the study of Africa and the Middle East, examining issues that span both regions (i.e., cross-border conflict, Islamist politics, social movements and national identity, and Gulf interventionism.) In February 2021, we convened another workshop, sponsored by POMEPS and the newly-founded Program on African Social Research (PASR, pronounced Pasiri) centered on racial formations and racialization across the two regions. Both workshops centered around the need for a genuinely transregional scholarship, one which rejects artificial divisions between ostensibly autonomous regions while also taking seriously the distinctive historical trajectories and local configurations of power which define national and subregional specificities. The workshop brought together nearly two dozen scholars from across multiple disciplines to explore the historical and contemporary politics of racial formation across Africa and the Middle East.
Topic:
Islam, Race, War, Immigration, Law, Slavery, Judaism, Colonialism, Borders, Identity, and Amazigh
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Turkey, Middle East, Asia, South Africa, Yemen, Palestine, North Africa, Egypt, Madagascar, Tunisia, Oman, and Gulf Nations

102. Providing Support to Children and Youth Vulnerable to or Affected by Radicalization Leading to Violent Extremism (RLVE)

Author:
Julien Domergue and Cristina Mattei
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Hedayah
Abstract:
This report summarizes the results of Hedayah’s capacity building program Providing Support to Children and Youth Vulnerable to or Affected by Radicalization Leading to Violent Extremism (RLVE) conducted under the guidance of the National Counter Terrorism Commission of Tunisia between January 2019 and November 2019. Since 2018, Hedayah has been training educators, psychologists and social workers across Tunisia to ensure they are better equipped to support the effective reintegration of youth and children affected by radicalization leading to violent extremism.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, Violent Extremism, Radicalization, Youth, and Countering Violent Extremism
Political Geography:
Tunisia

103. Environmentalism After Decentralization: The Local Politics of Solid Waste Management in Tunisia

Author:
Lana Salman
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Ten days before the end of 2020, Mustapha Laroui, then Minister of Environment and Local Affairs, was dismissed from his post on suspicion of corruption. Laroui served in Tunisia’s ninth post-revolution government, headed by Hishem Mechichi who also kicked him out of office. He was arrested the same day. The scandal that ended Laroui’s career in government concerns facilitating the transfer of 282 containers equivalent to 480 tons of Italian waste to Tunisia via the port of Sousse.1 The full extent of the scandal was revealed after the investigative TV show “Al Haqa’eq al Arba‘a” (the four truths) ran an episode on 2 November 2020 uncovering the scale of the problem. Twenty-three additional suspects were arrested and questioned in relation to the scandal, including the director of the National Agency for Waste Management (ANGED), who was later released, and a Tunisian diplomat based in Naples. Though it made the news in November, the imported waste had been sitting in the port of Sousse since early 2020. Reports indicate that the deal that brought southern Italian waste to the Tunisian shore was signed between the export-oriented Tunisian firm Soreplast and the Naples-based Italian firm Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali Srl. Contrary to the media narrative – whereby Soreplast had allegedly imported post-industrial plastic waste to process, recycle, and export – the formal contract indicates that the objective was the permanent elimination of the waste in Tunisia, with a price tag of 48 euros/ton, not to exceed 120,000 tons per year, for a total value of 5 million euros. Dirty scandals haunt Tunisia’s solid waste management sector. An investigative report published by Nawaat2 in May 2015 focused on the rampant corruption in the management of the country’s largest controlled landfill, the landfill of Borj Chakir in the municipality of Sidi Hassine, a southern suburb of Tunis with a number of working-class neighbourhoods (quartiers populaires).3 A pithy summary describes the situation: solid waste management is a highly lucrative sector where opacity and corruption are not only endemic but also institutionalized. The report exposes the rigged public tendering process which enabled the French company PIZZORNO Environnement headed by François Léotard to win the contract for the management of the Borj Chakir landfill because of Léotard’s friendship with ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The infractions were reported in a 350-page investigation prepared by Abdelfattah Amor, 4 which addresses corruption and embezzlement affairs across sectors perpetrated by the authoritarian regime and its cronies. The creation of ANGED in 20055 as a public non-administrative agency responsible for solid waste management (henceforth SWM) seems to have facilitated institutionalized corruption in the sector. Starting in the 1990s with the acceleration of neoliberal policies, a veneer of awareness-raising campaigns to create environmentally conscious citizens hid institutionalized corruption in SWM from public view. Labib (figure 1) was the emblem of these campaigns. The environment mascot whose statues filled roundabouts across Tunisia is associated with the RCD (Constitutional Democratic Rally), the one-party-state of the authoritarian regime. After the revolution, most of these statues were vengefully destroyed in protest. Those still standing are a reminder of the powerful ideas the authoritarian regime ingrained in citizens’ minds about the environment, and which encompass two elements: aesthetics (decorating public spaces with statues) and moral uprightness, measured in terms of conforming to a specific behaviour, such as not littering. Framed like this, environmental protection was a personal moral responsibility rather than a societal political-economy question related to patterns of consumption, the inevitable waste these patterns create, and ways of disposing of the produced waste. Nonetheless, Labib did help raise awareness about environmental protection. Although the removal of most of these statues is a break from the authoritarian regime, no awareness-raising efforts have replaced the mascot.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Green Technology, Local, and Waste
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

104. Tunisia: A Revolution Still Without Monuments

Author:
Malek Lakhal
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Ten years on, Tunisia has yet to decide on how to publicly commemorate its revolution. This paper looks at the monuments of the revolution – or rather their absence – in the capital Tunis and how public spaces remain a deeply political arena torn between those who believe that the revolution was a breaking point in Tunisian national history and those who view it as no more than a small hiccup along the way.
Topic:
Social Movement, Popular Revolt, Revolution, and Remembrance
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

105. The Unfinished Revolution: Police Brutality at the Heart of the 10th Anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution

Author:
Zied Boussen
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
14 January 2021 marked the 10 anniversary of the Tunisian revolution; it also ushered a wave of police repression against human rights activists and social movements that continues to expand. As a result, over 2000 people were arrested and several died in what many see as the greatest erosion of freedoms since Ben Ali’s ouster. This paper tracks the evolution of police powers in Tunisia over the past decade and provides recommendations for a democratic and inclusive reform.
Topic:
Social Movement, State Violence, Revolution, and Police Brutality
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

106. Constitutional or Unconstitutional: Is That the Question?

Author:
Eya Jrad
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
On 25 July 2021, Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and froze the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, creating a constitutional crisis in a country already embattled by dire COVID-19 conditions. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the constitutionality of the measures taken by Kais Saied, by examining both the text of the Constitution and the context to argue that a contextual interpretation is needed in order to adjust to the dynamic nature of societies.
Topic:
Democracy, Constitution, State Formation, Legislation, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Political Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

107. Has Tunisia’s Democracy Failed to Convince its Youth? The Slow-Going of Democratic Socialization

Author:
Sarah Anne Rennick
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Tunisia’s current political crisis marks perhaps the most faltering moment in the process of democratic consolidation since 2013. This paper looks at the microcosm of Tunisian youth, and in particular those in marginalized governorates that have not benefited in socio-economic terms from the transition to democracy. It shows that political socialization over the last 10 years has so far failed to produce widespread democratic attitudes and explores the implications for the consolidation of democracy in the country.
Topic:
Social Movement, Democracy, Youth, and Participation
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

108. Ennahda or the cost of recognition

Author:
Thierry Brésillon
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The political earthquake that rocked Tunisia on 25 July 2021 and its following 25 September aftershock – which resulted in a loss of power and dissent over contested leadership – had closed a cycle for Ennahda and ushered in a moment of existential uncertainty. It became unclear if the organization could reinvent itself to regain the role it had played since 2011. In one form or another, it was also unclear if the party still had something to offer Tunisians. This is essentially the recurring uncertainty surrounding the relevance of political Islam as a party and its potential to bring about specific solutions to contemporary problems created in the wake of the turmoil of the past few weeks. In this context, this paper will provide a retrospective glance at Ennahda’s trajectory since 2011.
Topic:
Politics, Natural Disasters, Governance, and Leadership
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

109. Desert Drift, Declining Deadliness: Understanding the Evolution of AQIM’s Suicide Bombings

Author:
Jason Warner, Ellen Chapin, and Caleb Weiss
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
For the past several years, jihadi violence perpetrated by al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliated groups like Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) has contributed to renewed insecurity in the Sahara and Sahel. Despite the widespread violence that has emerged, few studies have focused on AQIM and its affiliates’ broader profiles of violence generally, or their use of specific tactics more acutely. This report examines how AQIM and its affiliated groups have deployed suicide bombers over the past 13 years. Using a unique dataset compiled by the CTC detailing the breadth of AQIM and its sundry affiliated groups’ use of suicide bombers from March 2007 to September 2020, this report offers the most comprehensive view to date of the groups’ use of the tactic. Among other findings, it underlines the existence of AQIM’s “desert drift:” the very clear shift in theaters of operation of AQIM’s suicide bombers from North Africa between 2007 and 2012 (focused primarily in Algeria, where it focused on police and domestic military targets) to the Sahel from 2013 to 2020 (focused primarily in Mali, where it targeted international peacekeepers). Using AQIM’s “desert drift” as a dividing point between two distinct suicide bombing campaigns, the report then compares various dimensions of AQIM and its affiliates’ suicide bombing efforts across these two campaigns, including comparative metrics on lethality, injuriousness, geographies, demographics of bombers’ age and gender, targeting tendencies, use of “teams” of bombers, and patterns of failure. In the main, it shows that despite being a long-used tactic by an increasingly pernicious group, AQIM’s use of suicide bombing has declined in prevalence, deadliness, and efficacy in the aftermath of its “desert drift.” Given these findings, the authors seek to provide new insight into how policymakers and academics understand the historical and contemporary threats posed by AQIM and its affiliates. In tracking one tactical choice of the group—suicide bombings—the authors also seek to provide a detailed analysis of how al-Qa`ida has manifested in the Sahel in a distinct form, tailoring its attacks profile to meet its evolving goals. Through these new insights, the report endeavors to provide new perspectives that will inform any response to insecurity in these regions and beyond.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Al Qaeda, Weapons, and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:
Africa, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Burkina Faso

110. Back to Economics: How Socially Innovative Business Models Can Be a Pathway to Jobs and Stability in the Middle East

Author:
Dina H. Sherif and Salma El Sayeh
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
In 2010, the Arab region was regarded as having very little potential for serious political transformation. The outside world perceived “stable” authoritarian regimes with iron-fist control over citizens who would surely never demand drastic change. Amal Ghadour described the regional landscape best: “These are the lifeless landscapes you are sure to behold if you were standing and peering down. Crouch and you begin to brush against the faint gusts of wind delicately working their way through them.”1 Engagement comes in many forms besides political, and in 2010, countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Syria were seeing significant increases in the number of NGOs, private sector engagement in social development, philanthropy, and youth volunteerism. None of these was viewed as a threat to the existing regimes at the time, but they represented a new coalescence of power amid increasing human rights abuses, youth exclusion, unemployment rates, and social inequity. The ingredients for change were there and finally ignited by the self-immolation of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010 in Tunisia, which launched the cycle of mass uprisings and the falling of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in 2011.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Business, Youth, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Middle East, North Africa, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia