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461. Egypt's Sinai Question

Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Terrorism returned to Egypt in 2004 after an absence of seven years with successive attacks and the emergence of a heretofore unknown movement in Sinai. The government's reaction essentially has been confined to the security sphere: tracking down and eliminating the terrorists. Egyptian and international NGOs have focused on the human rights violations which have been prominent in police procedures. The media have been preoccupied with whether al-Qaeda was responsible. Both the state's response and wider public discussion have been confined to the surface of events and have ignored the socio-economic, cultural and political problems which are at the heart of Sinai's disquiet. The emergence of a terrorist movement where none previously existed is symptomatic of major tensions and conflicts in Sinai and, above all, of its problematic relationship to the Egyptian nation-state. Unless these factors are addressed effectively, there is no reason to assume the terrorist movement can be eliminated.
Topic:
Government, Non-Governmental Organization, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
North Africa, Egypt, and Hiroshima

462. Arab States' Efforts to Combat Terrorism Financing

Author:
Michael Jacobson
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On April 1-5, the seventeen Arab members of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) met in Jordan to discuss terrorism financing and money laundering in the region. Although the task force's record to date shows some promise, the organization can do far more to address these critical issues.
Topic:
Economics and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arabia, and North Africa

463. 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

464. Democracy Demotion in Egypt: Is the United States a Willing Accomplice?

Author:
Andrew Exum and Zack Snyder
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On December 26, 2006, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak proposed a package of amendments to the Egyptian constitution with the purported aim of introducing more democratic freedom into Egypt's sclerotic political system. In effect, however, these "reforms" will serve only to strengthen the ruling party's stranglehold on Egyptian politics and send Egypt farther down the road toward authoritarian rule. On Monday, March 26, after minimal public debate, the Egyptian populace will vote on this package of amendments through referendum. Opposition groups are expected to boycott the vote.
Topic:
International Relations and Democratization
Political Geography:
United States, North Africa, and Egypt

465. Internet Freedom in the Middle East: Challenges for U.S. Policy

Author:
Andrew Exum
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On February 22, Egyptian blogger Abdul Karim Suleiman was sentenced to four years in prison for messages posted on his personal website. Suleiman, who blogs under the name Kareem Amer, was a student at Cairo's al-Azhar University when he posted comments deemed by Egyptian authorities as blaspheming Islam, inciting sedition, and insulting President Hosni Mubarak. For the first two offenses, he drew three years' imprisonment; for the third, an additional year. Among other things, Suleiman posted comments harshly critical of Muslims in his native Alexandria during their violent 2005 clashes with Coptic Christians. He also labeled his conservative religious university "the university of terrorism" and called Mubarak a "dictator."
Topic:
Civil Society and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, North Africa, and Egypt

466. Rural Childhoods in Egypt's Desert Lands

Author:
Hanne Kirstine Adriansen
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Based on fieldwork in Egypt's desert lands, this paper discusses rural childhoods in an area experiencing rapid social and cultural change. Since 1987, the Egyptian Government has made new villages in the desert as a means to increase agricultural production and solving problems of unemployment. Many settlers move to the Mubarak villages in order to give their children a good start in life. The desert villages are associated with a type of 'rural idyll'. The process of settling in the desert impacts upon the children's possible pathways to adulthood and their identities and social relationships. Not only do the children grow up in a different physical context, they are also exposed to new norms, values and behaviour that influences their everyday life and shape their identity. Especially the change from living in large, extended families to living in nuclear families as well as women's new roles impact upon the children's lives. The social contexts shaping the desert childhoods are in some ways more similar to contexts in 'developed' countries than in other parts of rural Egypt. The paper ends up by contrasting ideas of rural childhoods in Egypt with those found in 'developed' countries.
Topic:
Agriculture, Civil Society, and Development
Political Geography:
North Africa and Egypt

467. Ten Years after: Achievements and Challenges of the Euro-Mediterranean Economic and Financial Partnership

Author:
Juliane Brach
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
EU and twelve countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) engaged in 1995 in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in political, economic and cultural matters with the aim to foster cooperation, stability, and prosperity around the Mediterranean Basin. The Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) plays a central role in the EMP design and implementation, which is centered on economic and trade integration as a starting point for and an anchor of socioeconomic development in the MENA region. Against this background, this paper reviews the situation in the MENA partner countries and the past performance of the EFP. It analyzes the association agreements, economic cooperation and financial assistance, discusses the major obstacles, and outlines the potential of the EFP to shape the European Neighborhood Policy.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

468. Des quartiers sans voix: Sur le divorce entre la Gauche et les enfants d'immigrés

Author:
Olivier Masclet
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
This article examines why the activism of the children of North African immigrants has not been noticed or recognized by elected officials of the Communist Party. Through historical and ethnographic study of a Communist municipality in the greater Paris region, the article first demonstrates that this militancy, far from being a new thing, is inscribed in the traditional forms of the militancy associated with the "banlieues rouges." In order to understand the urban activists' invisibility in politics, the author analyzes the negative representations of the group from which they come and the tensions between North African immigrants and local officials of the Left, tensions linked to urban renewal in the industrial suburbs. The detour through the history of the "red suburbs" thus reveals the structure of the tense relations between the Left and the housing projects, which seem to be disowned not only economically but also politically.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
North Africa

469. 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

470. 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