Africa Center for Strategic Studies

By William Thornberry and Jaclyn Levy. Center for Strategic and International Studies, September 2011. Instability in North Africa provides new opportunity for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to expand its influence and criminal operations, including in Algeria. As AQIM’s illegal activity in kidnapping and smuggling has expanded, it has become a self-sustaining organization and attractive to recruits seeking economic opportunity. Algerian counterterror efforts should be broadened to combat narcotrafficking and to constrict the flow of terrorist money and the group’s ability to acquire weapons and recruits. Download the Article: [PDF]

By Miriam Shabafrouz, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, 2010. Natural resource abundance has been consistently linked to authoritarianism, corruption, economic distortions and violent conflicts. The author explores these linkages in the context of the civil-war in Algeria in the 1990’s and  concludes that while the problems of the resource curse exist in Algeria, other factors such as religion, demography and socioeconomic divisions played a more direct role in triggering and sustaining the conflict. While there has been a decline of violence since the beginning of the millennium, Miriam argues that the underlying problems of popular disengagement from politics, frustration with corruption, and an inclination to accept radical ideologies - key drivers of the civil war have still not been sufficiently addressed. Download the Paper: [PDF]

By Jean-Pierre Filiu, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2009. Threats posed by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) are creating security challenges not only to host nations but the global community.  AQIM continues to exploit people’s disdain for Western policies in the region as a recruiting tool. However, in-fighting among its leadership and failure to consolidate a North African wide-organization due to resistance from the Libyan Al-Qaeda entity have been serious obstacles. The author argues that AQIM’s potency has been further weakened by intense pressure from the Algerian security forces as well as enhanced rapid reaction capacity in the region resulting from United States support to the Pan Sahel Initiative countries (Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger) now expanded to the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership TSCTP (including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). Download the Paper: [PDF]

By Amel Boubekeur, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008 Confronting indigenous Islamists movements has been a challenge not only for the West but for Arab governments. Strategies for the inclusion of moderates into the legal and political process while aggressively pursuing the radicals are gaining traction, though the political ramifications of this approach have yet to be seen. Part of the government strategy to counter radical groups (Da’wa Salafism, Salafiyya Harakiyya and Salafiyya Jihadiyya), include amnesty for those who abandon their radical views and a concerted effort of aggressively pursuing the rejecters. While only Da’wa Salafism has accepted the amnesty offer, the other two have seen their influence decline.  Despite the success in containing these radical groups, the author argues that they still retain the capability to carry out terrorist attacks and thus represent a serious security threat. Download the Paper: [PDF]