Addressing Extremism and Socioeconomic Challenges

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have enormous economic potential with remarkable natural resources and industrial production capacities. While considerable progress for economic reforms has been reached already, a deeper regional integration and stronger cooperation can provide the needed impetus for facilitated development and upgraded national as well as regional economic structures in the wider region. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) present significant untapped potential, ...

La transformation de la Communauté Economique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) en « confédération d’Etats » est parfois évoquée, y compris au niveau des Chefs d’Etat de la Communauté, comme une prochaine étape naturelle du processus d’approfondissement de l’intégration en Afrique de l’Ouest. La présente étude a pour objet d’en explorer la faisabilité et la pertinence, en se fondant sur l’expérience vécue dans d’autres continents. Une Confédération d’Etats peut être défini ...

Sur fond d’accusations mutuelles d’absence de volonté politique pour faire aboutir les négociations tripartites impliquant l’Egypte, l’Ethiopie et le Soudan, sur la mise en service du “Grand Barrage de la Renaissance Éthiopienne”  (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam -GERD), l’Egypte et l’Ethiopie continuent d’alterner des signaux de provocation et d’apaisement. Cette tension gagne en intensité au fur et à mesure que s’approche le mois de juillet, marquant le début du remplissage du ba ...

Sur fond d’accusations mutuelles d’absence de volonté politique pour faire aboutir les négociations tripartites surla mise en service du “Grand Barrage de la Renaissance Éthiopienne” (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam -GERD),l’Egypte et l’Ethiopie continuent d’alterner des signaux de provocation et d’apaisement. Cette tension gagne en intensité au fur et à mesure que s’approche la saison des pluies (juillet à septembre) quel’Ethiopie compte mettre à profit pour remplir le barrage et q ...

Unless trade wars end around the globe, the world is headed for the biggest recession in living memory. The crisis arising from the coronavirus will hit fragile economies in Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean the hardest. At such a time, the world should be dropping barriers but, instead, new barriers are being built. In the past month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened retaliation against India unless it released supplies of hydroxychloroquine. Worse still, he got his way ...

Prior to the colonial era, money issuance in West Africa depended on slave trade. With the advent of the colonialrule, silver coins were imported then progressively imposed as a tool of coercion. The post-colonial trajectory wasdifferent for former British and French colonies. While the former regained their monetary sovereignty, the lattercontinued under a monetary union under the auspices of France. The proposal of the Eco as a single currency forECOWAS is therefore a whole new st ...

Russia is trying to gain a foothold in Africa via subversion and disinformation tactics. Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, Russia increased its interference in Africa by sending mercenaries to show force as opposed to making direct security interventions. At the same time, Russia struck arms deals and plans to expand its military presence. Russia also used social and broadcast media to support national leaders and other actors involved in conflicts. Although Russia’s ...

The securitization of climate change has important implications in terms of how the issue is framed and addressed, at national and international policy levels. It has become clear that climate change poses multiple and overlapping security challenges, including in terms of livelihood insecurity, disruption to agriculture and energy infrastructure, can fuel social tensions, conflict, and displacement. But consensus is growing around a more moderate view that climate change is exacerb ...

At the beginning of June, officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, usually active on America’s periphery, were deployed to Washington D.C., where President Donald Trump had sighted an internal threat posed by “anarchists, agitators, looters, or lowlifes”. In reality, American citizens were protesting, mostly peacefully, against police brutality, and the killings of African-Americans by cops. Nevertheless, the urban revolt seemed grave enough for the Trump Administration to ...