North Africa: Politics, Region, and the Limits of Transformation (review)

Yahia H. Zoubir and Haizam Amirah-Fernandez have brought together a group of eminent scholars who specialize in the Maghreb. North Africa is a comprehensive study of recent developments in the region with attention to the five countries which make up the group: Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. William Quandt has written an excellent forward in which he makes the point that “one significant part of the Arab World, the Maghreb, is engaged in the mundane tasks of development without exceptional turmoil or violence.” Despite this positive judgment, it is clear from the rest of the book that many controversial issues confront the countries of this strategic part of the world.

North Africa is divided into three parts:

Part 1 considers each of the five countries and identifies similarities and differences among them.

Part 2 looks at the issues from a regional standpoint and compares several important political, social, and economic issues as they affect all five countries.

Part 3 looks at the issues surrounding the security of the countries, specifically their relations with outside powers, especially the United States, France, Spain, and the European Union as a whole.

The book contains seventeen chapters, but a few themes dominate the discussion. The first, which recurs throughout North Africa, is that the concept of a Maghreb “region” is overstated. There are some similarities among the countries, the authors say. Most important in their view is that all five are authoritarian in their governments and have histories of human rights abuses. These negative traits hardly define a region, however. Despite many ostensible attempts to develop positive regional organizations and cooperation, none have produced real results. Among the attempts at regional cooperation, the most notable is the Arab Maghreb Union, founded in 1989 but which, according to several of the authors, has had no appreciable effect in developing a regional consciousness among the countries. As a result, the first part of the study addresses the countries individually.

Algeria is the largest of the five countries and figures in more of the regional issues than any of the others. Its leader, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, assumed power in 1999. He brought an end to internal strife that had beset Algeria almost from its independence. On the economic side, oil and natural gas exports have produced a positive balance of trade and economic improvements. Algeria has made some moves toward democracy with less involvement of the military in governance. Most observers, however, think free elections certainly would give the Front Islamique du Salut a good chance of control, which most likely would result in a renewal of violence.

Libya’s ruler, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, is the most autocratic of the leaders in the region, making no pretense of movement toward democracy. But with agreement on the PanAm 103 issue and a decision to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, Libya has been accepted by the United States and European nations with normal diplomatic relations. Libya’s economy is strengthened by significant oil exports. One interesting anomaly for the authors is that Libya has focused its foreign policy more on Africa than on its Arab neighbors.

Mauritania is an interesting case. The first sentence of the essay on this country notes that there were nine military coups in this underpopulated, barren country between 1978 and 2005 (and another took place in August 2008). The authors maintain that this instability occurred in good part because the country has allowed the United States to dominate its foreign policy, as illustrated by Mauritania’s establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel — a very sore point with its neighbors. The authors attribute US interest in Mauritania to the discovery of oil there as well as a desire to use Mauritanian territory in the fight against terrorism.

Morocco has had excellent relations with the United States for a considerable length of time...