Atlantic Publications

Un proverbe africain dit, seul on va plus vite ; ensemble on va plus loin. C’est dans cet esprit de l’action et du leadership collectifs que s’insère l’initiative de l’Afrique atlantique initiée par le Maroc et qui vise la création des conditions nécessaires pour la construction d’une région Afrique/Atlantique stable, prospère et tournée vers la mer. À cette première initiative s’est ajoutée une deuxième, celle de la facilitation de l’accès à la mer aux pays du Sahel, e ...

The strategic significance of the southern Atlantic is growing, driven by two underlying dynamics. Firstly, we have seen the geostrategic capabilities of the southern Atlantic states and their inhabitants strengthen and the value of their strategic assets rise, despite lingering internal vulnerabilities and frequent instability, often caused by the northern Atlantic and, on occasion, Eurasia. Secondly, the way in which the southern Atlantic states are pursuing and exploiting the pot ...

In realist terms, the Southern Atlantic represents a natural partner for the powers of Eurasia—now grouped together in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)— especially for those that are, or could be, BRICS members. Pan-Atlantic cooperation is inherently of strategic interest to Eurasian countries because of its potential implications for the ultimate size of the BRICS Plus, for the degree of implication from its members in the Southern Atlantic, and for BRICS strategic goals ...

“According to realism, states exist within an anarchic international system in which they are ultimately dependent on their own capabilities, or power, to further their national interests. The most important national interest is the survival of the state, including its people, political system, and territorial integrity. Other major interests for realists include the preservation of a nation’s culture and economy. Realists contend that, as long as the world is divided into nation-st ...

The Atlantic Basin has long lacked diplomatic and political initiatives embracing it as a whole. In that regard, it stands out from other oceans, as focus on the North Atlantic has largely overshadowed the "Rest". Nevertheless, a series of recent initiatives point to a possible solution to this long institutional absence. Building on decades of reflection and recent momentum, an emerging pan-Atlanticism might be on the horizon. ...

It gives me pleasure to introduce the 2023 edition of Atlantic Currents, the annual report on Atlantic affairs which the Policy Center for the New South has issued since 2014. For this 10th edition, experts from 27 countries were invited to state their views on dynamics of interest to our shared ocean. Their respective inputs made this issue the culmination of a decade of investigation, studies, and analyses that can help understand better the multifaceted challenges and opportunit ...

The Policy Center for the New South, under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, has hosted the 11th edition of its annual Atlantic Dialogues International Conference in Marrakech from December 14 to 16, 2022. Over 350 guests from 60 different countries have taken part in this first in-person edition in three years, under the theme “Cooperation in a Mutating World: Opportunities of the Wider Atlantic”. The most recent edition in this format, held in 2019 address “The S ...

The Atlantic area and its Afro-Atlantic seaboard are suffering the consequences of the global situation. We are witnessing a complex geopolitical game involving different strategies that have various processes, tactics, and objectives. The current situation reveals a paradoxical dynamic, which involves the Euro-Atlantic powers, extra- regional powers (China and Russia), and all the Afro-Atlantic countries. How is the power game organized in the Atlantic area? How does Africa9s Atlan ...

This report is part of a partnership between the Policy Center for the New South and the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.   The creative economy is a constantly evolving activity, driven by the cultural industries, which make up a large and interconnected sector. Arts and culture impact the creative economy in major areas: education, innovation, collaboration, and clustering. The cultural industries are one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the global economy. This sector is ...

L’océan Atlantique, dans sa partie sud, qui demeure un espace géopolitique inexploité, peut servir de nouvelle plateforme de dialogue entre le Nord et le Sud. Le Royaume du Maroc, stratégiquement placé dans cet espace, peut exploiter sa façade atlantique afin d’insuffler une nouvelle dynamique à sa relation avec l’Amérique latine pour le renforcement des échanges politiques et économiques dans le sud global. Les relations entre le Maroc et les pays de l’Amérique latine c ...

The energy sector faces many challenges that undermine economic growth, energy security and access, and environmental sustainability. To address these challenges, Atlantic Basin countries need to improve access to reliable energy, diversify their energy mix with low-carbon alternatives and improve energy efficiency in the long term. However, the transition to clean energy will also create new risks and challenges that differ from one Atlantic country to another, requiring additional ...

This publication provides an insight into the lens through which countries of the Global South view the current period of successive crises, brought about by an ongoing global pandemic and a war in Europe. It highlights how the combined weight of history, culture, and geography has shaped the Global South’s interests and is influencing its foreign policy stance during one of the most dangerous periods of Great-Power competition in recent times—one that could see the fracturing of th ...

This ninth edition of “Atlantic Currents” appears in an international context marked predominantly by a ten month-war between Russia and Nato members that began February 2022. The war is affecting not only the European and American member States directly and actively involved in an unprecedented manner, but more importantly the countries of the global South that have suffered collateral damage. Indeed, the nations of the world were barely out of the most painful and costly phase o ...

“Within the realm of military conflicts, the Atlantic Basin can be considered a relatively peaceful area, especially in the northern part. However, the region has faced unprecedented challenges in terms of policy planning and strategizing with the emergence of the global pandemic, the stagnating economic growth, and the population’s growing discontent toward public institutions. The conjunction of sanitary, economic, and political crisis has questioned the historical stability of we ...

The Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Alumni (ADEL) Portraits are a series of journalistic insights that delve into the stories and backgrounds of impactful young leaders of the ADEL community, now 350 alumni strong. These portraits are more than a biography as they capture the motives, success stories, career shifts, and vision behind each emerging leader’s pursuit of positive impact. From Morocco to South Africa, Germany to Canada, Brazil and the United States, these young leade ...

Ce Policy Paper explore les enjeux de la maritimisation du monde et les opportunités qui se présentent au Maroc et les menaces auxquelles le Royaume fait face sur sa façade atlantique. Nous nous appuyons sur les opportunités que représentent la côte Atlantique pour le Maroc et, plus globalement, pour le continent africain, tant au niveau du commerce de biens et de marchandises qu’aux niveaux logistique et portuaire. Enfin, ce Papier insiste sur l’importance de la jonction entr ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy and has challenged the best minds to rethink how to design and implement an effective recovery. Countries in the wider Atlantic region have exhibited differential trajectories in traversing the pandemic. A number of countries in Europe succeeded in vaccinating most of their eligible populations, enabling life to return somewhat to normal. A smaller group of countries in Europe could manage infection rates even more ti ...

Thanks to the positive momentum in transatlantic relations brought about by the arrival of the Biden administration, significant progress is expected on a range of key digital issues. New rules are emerging that are designed to level the playing field for economic actors and ensure the respect of civil liberties, while significant new investments in technological innovation are taking place amid considerable industrial reorganizations. This paper proposes to shed light on seven part ...

Le bilan des relations Europe/Méditerranée et Europe/Afrique invite aujourd’hui à un renouveau de ces partenariats. Un renouveau car il y a retrait partiel de l’Europe en ce qui concerne les questions de développement du voisinage Méditerranée-Afrique dans un temps où les partenariats actuels [de Barcelone et celui de Cotonou] s’emboitent dans la logique du commerce (libre-échange) et de l’aide financière. Le renouveau du partenariat Euro-méditerranée-Afrique devrait s’inscrire dans ...

The BDA Currents: Where Diplomacy Meets Business, is the Brussels Diplomatic Academy’s annual report covering the wider geopolitical and other factors influencing and affecting the world of diplomacy, international relations and global business. The journal focuses on issues of topical interest around the centers of global power, influence and importance, including the continents of Europe and Africa, the Middle East, China, India & Asia, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independe ...

With a population of approximately 200 million, Nigeria accounts for about half of West Africa's population and has one of the largest concentrations of young people in the world. Endowed with abundant natural resources, Nigeria is one of Africa's largest oil exporters, with an estimated 37 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the majority of which are found in the Niger River Delta and offshore in the Bight of Benin, the Gulf of Guinea and the Bight of Bonny. Nigeria also ...

The Atlantic Current’s 7th edition provides a unique overview and in-depth analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic as seen from the Atlantic, and the challenges it poses for the region. In this edition, the authors examine how SARS-CoV-2 has proved to be a destabilizing force in a wide range of sectors such as health, international relations, trade, energy or the economy. This report aims to examine and assess the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis while endeavoring to learn from these n ...

The Atlantic basin faces considerable challenges on multiple fronts. Financial and economic struggles, coupled with political shifts and social turmoil, are reshaping the region’s geopolitical landscape. Unemployment, poverty, violence, migration, extremism, climate change and other problems are on the rise and the need to tackle them effectively is pressing. To find adequate solutions to these challenges, it is crucial to create inclusive discussions between the North and the Sout ...

Dans ce huitième ouvrage, le Centre HEC de Géopolitique et le Policy Center for the New South présentent 13 papiers conjoints inspirés de la 8ème édition de la conférence annuelle des Dialogues Stratégiques, et enrichis par les auteurs. Lors de cette rencontre, qui a eu lieu le 17 octobre 2019, deux thèmes majeurs ont été discutés : Les défis de la navalisation et de la maritimisation du monde et l’insularité au sein de l’Union Africaine. Dans la première partie de l’ouvrage, les a ...

Our Senior Fellow and professor at the University Abdelmalek Essaadi (Tangier) Rachid El Houdaigui, contributed with a chapter on « The South Atlantic, a Space under Construction » in Idn Cadernos (nstituto daDefesaNacional) n°38, the Academic journal of the Atlantic Centre for Defence Capacity Building. This paper was presented – along other experts from countries bordering the Atlantic basin and beyond- in the context of Rachid El Houdaigui’s participation in the first seminar org ...

The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) believes in filling in the generational and perception gaps, and this can only be achieved when the younger generations of leaders and professionals are given a seat at the table, to challenge the established perspectives and forward the conversations. The PCNS supports youth as the leaders of today and has faith in their capacity to inflict change in the present. It also believes in: intergenerational dialogue and co-leadership; youth as a ...

The Atlantic Current’s 6th edition provides overview, fresh insights, latest data, and broader analysis on the Atlantic space’s current challenges, as well as their implications for the South. Different chapters explore emerging trends and critical issues, such as the World Trade Organization reform, Brexit and the future of EU, the expansion of militancy in the Sahel and Coastal Africa, the role of cultural diplomacy and the deepening of Sino-African relations within a shifting an ...

Pour le n•165 - automne 2019, Politique Internationale a interviewé Karim El Aynaoui, président du Policy Center for the New South, au sujet de la zone de libre échange continental, pour le dossier spécial « développement: les voies africaines ». Il y répond notamment aux questions suivantes : en quels termes faut-il repenser le développement  de l’Afrique ? Comment l’approche marocaine se définit-elle ? la façade atlantique de l’Afrique et l’importance de ses échanges avec l’Améri ...

In the context of the Policy Center for the New South Partnership with Jean Monnet Network on Atlantic Studies, a project coordinated by the Fundação Getúlio Vargasand funded by the European Commission, under the Horizon 2020 research program, our Senior Fellow Abdelhak Bassou and researcher in International Relations Amal El Ouassif drafted the second chapter entitled : Understanding Terrorism and Organized Crime in Light of Fragile States: Case Study on Niger, Mali and Chad. The ...

The concept of a “Wider Atlantic” has been finding its way into mainstream discourse, as it is progressively molding into an alternative to the present-day understanding of transatlantic relations. The attention is being refocused to a wider geographic area around the Atlantic basin, which includes Southern Atlantic states in the policy and opinion-shaping conversation (s). With 23 states now comprising the Western Atlantic Coast of Africa, this continent has an ever-growing role to ...

The yearly Atlantic Currents publication aims to provide a detailed analysis and a fresh perspective about ongoing cultural, economic, political and security dynamics that are shaping the wider Atlantic area today. Launched in December during the Atlantic Dialogues Conference, previous editions explored ways to change mental maps and examined promising opportunities for the African continent. The chapters in this edition of the Atlantic Currents aim to cover key issues and choke po ...

Le rapport Atlantic Currents 2017 sort en marge de la 6ème édition des Atlantic Dialogues, conférence de haut niveau organisée annuellement au Maroc par l’OCP Policy Center et ayant comme mission de promouvoir le dialogue transatlantique entre toutes les parties prenantes de cet espace géostratégique (Afrique, Caraïbes, Europe, Amérique latine et États-Unis), un dialogue devenu nécessité vu les changements rapides survenus de tous les côtés de l'Atlantique au cours des dernières ann ...

As a significant complement to the Atlantic Dialogues conference, the Atlantic Currents publication allows a deeper and further extension of the analytic contribution provided by the “Dialogues”.The goal being to enlarge the discussion pertaining to economic, political and security dimensions of a wider Atlantic area, favoring a new geopolitical construction of this strategic region. OCP Policy Center is proud of the role it has played in extending the transatlantic debate to embrac ...

The United States and Europe share a common interest in addressing the growing terrorist threats from North Africa. The emergence of ISIL as a force in the region — notably in Libya, but also in Egypt and to a lesser degree in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali — is cause for genuine concern. The ISIL challenge is compounded by the persistence of older terrorist organizations, both local ones such as the region’s various Ansar al Sharias as well as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al ...

Alors que la menaces, que la criminalité transnationale organisée présentait dans les années 70 était considérée comme étant secondaire, le changement de sa nature, l’augmentation de ses risques et sa stigmatisation de plus en plus soutenue comme étant responsable des instabilités politiques et de certains conflits internes, a poussé la communauté internationale à s’inscrire dans une logique de confrontation avec ses aspects les plus menaçants à la sécurité internationale. Or curieu ...

The authors of the Atlantic Currents report cross-examine the trends and challenges of the Atlantic space under different perspectives, driven by the desire to move away from the North-South divisions and influences. Among the factors that motivate the communities in the Atlantic basin to co-operate with each other, we find the succession of financial and banking crises (now economic), which have destabilized nearly if not all the countries of the globe since 2008, more specifically ...

La réunion des chefs d’État et de gouvernement des pays de l’OTAN à Varsovie constitue une étape importante de la transformation structurelle et fonctionnelle de l’Alliance atlantique et de l’OTAN. Le Communiqué final et les trois déclarations confirment le retour progressif à l’endiguement, à travers le renforcement de la dissuasion et la défense de l’Alliance, et la mise à distance de la menace asymétrique et hybride. Cette dynamique contribue à la centralité de la défense collect ...

Les sous-régions et espaces d’intégration, anciens ou improvisés prolifèrent en Afrique. Ces structures sont communément désignées sous l’appellation : Communauté économique régionale (CER)1. A côté de l’Union africaine qui se veut l’organe d’intégration par excellence, d’autres structures sous régionales africaines font figure de phase intermédiaire pour faciliter l’intégration globale du continent. Certaines de ces sous-régions sont institutionnelles, d’autres sont de simples comm ...

The Atlantic basin holds a strategic place in the global economy given the systemic importance that the northern part of the region represents. However, this area remains very heterogeneous with significant differences between the economies within it. The analysis conducted in this policy brief also shows the lack of synchronization of the economic cycle among the countries in the region, and especially the low level of trade and financial integration of the African part of the basi ...

La façade atlantique de l’Afrique réunit dans un espace géopolitique en construction les principaux atouts et défis du continent africain. La conjugaison de ces enjeux au comportement des Etats de la région semble fournir les premières composantes d’une identité stratégique « afro-atlantique », toujours en construction : vision commune des enjeux et institutionnalisation de l’espace, à travers des structures informelles comme la Conférence des États africains riverains de l’Atlantiq ...

Lors du Sommet de Lisbonne des 19 et 20 novembre 2010, l’Alliance atlantique a adopté son troisième concept stratégique post-bipolaire qui consacre le processus de transformation structurelle et fonctionnelle. La projection de puissance et la stabilisation des théâtres extérieurs sont les nouvelles missions qui viennent s’ajouter à la mission classique de la défense mutuelle. Dès lors, l’OTAN passe du rôle d’alliance défensive régionale à celui d’acteur international de sécurité et ...

Two of the largest oil producers in Africa, Nigeria on the Atlantic and Libya on the Mediterranean are facing the two most violent terrorist groups on the continent. The Libyan version of Daesh and Boko Haram seem to be gaining ground to join in an area formed by three states that are vulnerable to the spread of terrorism. In Cameroon, the chaos is a concern post-Biya. Battle fatigue may reach the Chadian state that has been involved in an all-out battle. Niger, which is limited by ...

Brazil is in a good position to serve as a bridge to Africa and to reignite more cooperation between both sides of the South Atlantic. Brazil has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in terms of trade, investment, development cooperation, and political alliances with the goal to secure a greater say for the global South in the new world order that has been under construction since the of the Cold War. This has been pursued through financial support and proactive economic ...

OCP Policy Center and the German Marshall Fund are pleased to present this second edition of Atlantic Currents, an annual report charting wider Atlantic patterns and perspectives. The report is the result of a close collaboration between The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and OCP Policy Center, and is a companion to the Atlantic Dialogues, our annual forum in Morocco. Both activities are part of a multi-year partnership to promote dialogue and analysis on issues aff ...

This brief seeks to look into how innovation ecosystems in the Atlantic Basin may affect public policymaking, economic development, and the future of commercial and social interactions. It looks more specifically at enabling technologies, which generate networks and increase connectivity. It also explores the transformational role these technologies play on the evolution of strategic industries in the Atlantic. The digital revolution’s full potential indeed lies in its capacity to s ...