The Complexities of Mediating African Conflicts: Insights from Paul-Simon Handy

Historians often offer different interpretations of the events that have shaped our destiny, yet, with respect to World War 2, the bloodiest conflict in history, they seem to concur on two points. First, that those yearning for peace underestimated the National Socialists’ determination to wage a war of conquest until it was far too late to deter them, and, second, that Nazi Germany failed to anticipate that Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union – each of which it provok ...

Maintenance of macro and political stability over decades is essential for sustaining an environment where private incentives to invest in higher productivity and profitable agriculture can flourish and bear fruit. It is necessary, but not sufficient. Most countries experience periods of instability either due to price inflation, in terms of trade shocks, and/ or political stresses. Those countries that maintain macro and political stability over decades, despite these shocks, are t ...

Cinq ans et demi après l’intervention militaire internationale conduite par la France pour chasser les jihadistes du nord du Mali, l’ancien Soudan français s’apprête à organiser une élection présidentielle censée accélérer le processus de paix issu des accords inter-maliens négociés à Alger et signés à Bamako en juin 2015. « Un scrutin décisif”, soutient en marge de l’African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO), organisé les 18 et 19 juin 2018 à Rabat au Maroc par l’OCP P ...

“NONE OF AFRICA’S PROBLEMS CAN BE RESOLVED THROUGH MILITARY FORCE” Colonel Raul Rivas arrived in dress uniform, his parachute citations well polished. His ribbons for bravery and combat duty were aligned at the upper left-hand side of his jacket, a colorful display of combat, death and battles in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The Colonel, just a few years above 40, and despite his 21 years in the military, was as “proud of being an American as one can be,” a true patriot. He jumped out ...

The addition of a fourth US rate rise to the Federal Reserve’s 2018 dot-plot graph after the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee sparked a bout of portfolio outflows from emerging markets. This followed a fleeting upswing at the beginning of the month that fell short on reversing the unwinding of exposure and sell-off of assets in May (Chart 1). Country differentiation has been accentuated, with exchange rate devaluation pressures and capital outflows occurring more no ...

Le tout dernier ouvrage qui vient d’être publié par l’OCP Policy Center, intitulé « Mutations politiques comparées au Maghreb et au Machrek, 7 ans après le ‘’Printemps arabe’’ », a fait l’objet d’une présentation au public, organisée le 27 juin 2018, à la Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Economiques et Sociales de l’Université Mohammed V-Agdal- Rabat.  Mr Abdallah Saaf, qui a supervisé l’ouvrage, a ainsi partagé avec l’assistance de l’Amphi I la raison d’être de cette nouvelle publi ...

Over the past decade, an increasing number of emerging markets has joined the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import club. From 7 countries in 2010, they were 17 in 2017: from traditionally export-oriented regions (such as the Middle East and North Africa) facing burgeoning gas and electricity demand, from emerging economies with growing energy needs (Southeast Asia), from countries facing severe energy and gas shortages and willing to replace imported oil in power generation (South Asi ...

Not far from highway 95, near a town named Lathrop Wells, only one establishment, besides the petrol station, was known to the rough cowboys and joyless soldiers of the nearby nuclear testing site, and that was “Mabel’s whore house”, advertised as such without shame and ready to accept credit cards. Luigi Raugi, a legal immigrant (from Sicily), as it is wise to insist these repressing days of  American immigrant bashing, was running the local drugstore and really excited, as were t ...

Après les vagues de protestations connues par le nom des « printemps arabes », les pays touchés n’ont pas tous abouti aux mêmes résultats. En effet, les fruits de ces manifestations ont varié en fonction des différences et des spécificités de chaque pays. Aujourd’hui, les conséquences se déclinent sous plusieurs scénarios : transition démocratique, reconstructions, réformes, contre-révolutions, guerres civiles, restauration autoritaire et autres. Ainsi, chaque société a vécu ses pro ...

Qui sont les groupes jihadistes actifs dans le Sahel, vaste région de 3 millions de kilomètres carrés ? Quels sont leurs objectifs, leurs moyens d'action et comment évoluent-ils ? Quelles sont les solutions en cours pour faire face à ces groupes ?  Les experts réunis lors du séminaire sur le Jihad au Sahel, organisé le 20 juin à Rabat par l’OCP Policy Center, ont tenté de répondre à ces questions.  Recul ou extension ?  La thèse du recul a été posée par une source française. Entre ...