Abstracts

North Africa: A Research and Policy Agenda                                                                                                       

How is North Africa researched in the South African research and academic institutions? What are the issues at the top of the research agenda? what are the approaches and methodologies used? The presentation offers a review of research on the North African region in South Africa. It suggests a new research agenda and recommends ways of promoting co-operation between South Africa and North African countries.

North Africa and the Challenge of Socio-Political Development 1990-2009: A Retrospective View and a Look Forward

The whirlwind of political liberalisation that blew over the African continent in the early 1990s did not spare North Africa. But overall, the pace of the democratic process in the region has been most sluggish compared to other regions of Africa. As in the democratic process, North Africa is the snail-moving tail of the continent with regard to regional integration. Perhaps the two are interlinked. In contrast to this, however, the region has made great strides in socio-economic developments, compared to the rest of the continent. When it comes to stability, North Africa has not seen generalised civil wars that other African regions have since the end of the Cold War. The exception is in Algeria and the Algerian civil war was almost as vicious as those of Sierra Leone and the Liberia, in terms of the atrocities committed and the number of victims claimed. Perhaps one unique characteristic of North African security environment is the constant occurrences of political violence and even criminal activities in the name of religion. The region has therefore featured very prominently in the global discourse of “war against terrorism”. The presentation aims to unpack some of the dynamics lying behind this state of affairs before taking a look forward at some possible paths of the region’s evolution in the near future.