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Algeria

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Assimilating the Past. The Wound that Still Bleeds: 50 years after Algerian Independence from France. Fifty years have passed since Algeria achieved independence from France. Today, both countries have a genuine desire to simply move on. Yet colonialism, decolonization, and its aftermath continue to haunt the present of both nations and affect relations between the two societies and within them. While historians and the media play an important role in shedding light on the realities of the past, justice ultimately lies in the hands of its beholders.

Two boys look at a poster calling for peace in Algeria, March 19, 1962. The text reads, 'Peace in Algeria for our Children' ('Pour Nos Enfants La Paix en Algerie'). 2012 officially marks the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence from France. The historical relationship between the two countries is a complicated one. The 2005 banlieue riots were the culmination of decades of frustration and resistance to inequality and institutional discrimination. Jason Xidias. The Malian Crisis Seen from Algeria. The military blitz by rebels in Northern Mali is far from inconsequential for its Algerian neighbor. The hypothetical secession of the Azawad (in the northern half of Mali) is not viewed favorably in Algeria, to say the least. In addition to the threat of instability across the country's southern border, the Mouvement National de Libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) made the pragmatic choice to form a short-lived alliance with jihadists from Ansaar Eddine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) during their offensive.

Due to Algeria’s own recent history with terrorism, this relationship was viewed with great suspicion. The success of the Tuareg rebels and their allies also has important implications given the upcoming legislative elections in Algeria that will prepare the succession of the Raïs Bouteflika. Algeria and the Sahelo-Saharian Space The Sahelo-Saharian space is crucial in Algeria's regional strategy for three reasons. Terrorism in the Sahel as Geopolitical Rent . . . Another Take on 'The Malian Crisis as Seen from Algeria' "The Malian crisis seen from Algeria," by Thomas Serres (19 April 2012) presents an analysis of Algerian perceptions of the upheaval in northern Mali.

This analysis is insufficient in explaining Algerian behavior in response to the rebellion in northern Mali or to the March coup d’etat and misidentifies Algerian priorities in relation to the "Sahelo-Saharan Space" and Algeria’s relationships with extra-regional actors in the west. Additionally, its underlying assumptions about Algerian foreign policy in the Sahel and the west do not match with observations of Algerian behavior in the past or at the present time. Serres’s analysis also highlights some of the problems facing those seeking to analyze Algeria’s foreign policy and the relationship between its internal politics and external behavior.

This post does not cover all parts of Serres’s analysis. Flawed Assumptions This assumption is more accurate than the other two but has less relevance in general than one might think. The World Factbook. Algeria. Algeria's 10 May 2012 Elections: Preliminary Analysis. The results of the 10 May 2012 Algerian legislative elections ran against conventional wisdom, and at least two points will certainly provoke much commentary. First, despite widespread disgruntlement, Algerian voter turnout proved to be significantly higher than predicted by most observers. 42.91 percent of registered Algerians participated – seven percent more than in 2007.

Second, and possibly with region-wide ramifications, Algerian voters bucked a major trend of the so-called "Arab Spring": Islamist victory at the urns. Islamists won neither a majority nor did they come close to winning a plurality of seats in the new parliament. In fact, the five-party Islamist bloc won a combined 59 seats in the new parliament, one less than in 2007, with an overall loss of three percent of total parliamentary share. Controversy One: 42.91 percent Participation Rate Observers predicted low voter turnout. Arab Uprisings and Algeria’s Specters from the Past The 5 April 2012 El Watan Poll. "Spring-Loaded Algeria" by Arnold Cassola. Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space ALGIERS – More than a year has passed since the Arab Spring dawned in the Maghreb, yet the promised political renaissance in the region has not materialized.

Although Tunisia, the movement’s birthplace, held multi-party elections in November 2011, disillusionment runs high. And, while presidential elections are expected to be held in Egypt this month, Tahrir Square remains a theater of bloody protests against the military council that has ruled since former President Hosni Mubarak’s fall. For Libya, where general elections will be held next month, the situation has become alarming. Meanwhile, Algeria, often touted as the next country that would get swept up by the Arab Spring, seems to have taken a different tack, favoring a slightly modified status quo over full-blown revolution. But looks can be deceiving – and not all Algerians are convinced. Will the coming months bring genuine change to Algeria? Only time will tell. The Algerian Paradox | The Majalla. Is Algeria in a position to follow neighboring Libya’s lead?

The flight of Muammar Qadhafi’s family to neighboring Algeria demonstrates that despite a rich revolutionary history, Algeria is long way behind the Arab Spring. But economic and social conditions are comparable with the rest of the region, so further unrest may not be far off. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika with Muammar Qadhafi One of the most telling developments of the Libyan uprising was the flight of senior members of the Qadhafi family, including Muammar Qadhafi’s wife and three of his children, to Algeria. It is sad to admit that Algerians would not have found the Qadhafis’ arrival in their country in the least bit surprising. While the Arab Spring revolutions have reminded the world that power should lie with the people, Algeria is an example of a state in near-permanent revolt, but one in which undemocratic forces have always succeeded in gaining the upper hand.

Nabila Ramdani. Arab Uprisings and the Algerian Elections: Ghosts from the Past? In December 2010 and January 2011, Algerians and Tunisians took to the streets. While in Tunisia hundreds of thousands of citizens stood up to bully dictator Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali, to the West, cities across Algeria erupted into widespread rioting. Though the 29 December to 10 January riots were of an intensity not seen since the October 1988 uprising that put an end to the former single-party system of the National Liberation Front (FLN), they dissipated as suddenly as they began, with no bloodshed. Meanwhile, Tunisian mass demonstrations ultimately forced Ben Ali to flee, both marking the Tunisian Revolution of January 14th and debuting the Arab Uprisings. After all, as Algerians are happy to point out, Algeria’s uprising occurred twenty-two years ago, in October 1988.

It is with these heavy thoughts in mind that Algerians go to the polls on 10 May 2012 – the fourth multiparty elections since the annulled 1991 vote. 1) Everything hinges on the transparency of the elections. The Dog That Didn't Bark - By James Traub. What's wrong with Algeria? Over the last year, the fever that is the Arab Spring has overtaken one country after another. Monarchies like Morocco or Jordan have been able to focus popular discontent on the government rather than the head of state; oil sheikdoms like Qatar or Kuwait have bought social peace. But no autocratic republic, no matter how brutal, has been able to resist the storm -- except Algeria.

Here is a country where strikes and demonstrations were routine long before 2011, where newspapers openly mocked an enfeebled leader, where security forces and pro-regime thugs confronted rioters amid the first stirrings of the Arab Spring. A year ago, Algeria might well have been voted most likely to overthrow its ruler. Very few Americans visit Algeria, or study it, or know much about it. Algeria was, like Tunisia and Morocco, a French colony. Turkey got a second chance with the election of the current ruling party, the AKP, in 2002; Algeria never did.

Algeria and the Arab Spring. A year ago, waves of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa swept away western-backed tyrants one after the other - first Tunisia’s Ben Ali, then Egypt’s Mubarak... It seemed the list of toppled dictators was bound to go on and on. These uprisings were unforgettable historical events and the emancipatory experience was so contagious that people all over the world were inspired. Occupiers from London to Wall Street were proud to “Walk like an Egyptian”. These revolts had echoes in other countries because they shared the same detonators of the explosion: authoritarianism, inegalitarian development, high unemployment, poverty, endemic corruption and nepotism, a suffocated political life, repression, human rights abuses, a frustrated educated youth without horizons and parasitic bourgeoisies who continue their protected robbery, exploitation and self-enrichment. The Arab Spring shattered these stereotypes and debunked these myths.

Why such a task is hard to achieve.