Algeria Again? Contemporary affairs

[davidbfpo]

An unusual article on Algerian politics and society via Carnegie:http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/06/26/s...-is-clear/ib67

It ends with:

Twenty-three years after the bloodiest chapter in contemporary Algeria, with 150,000 dead and 7,000 missing, victims of a war between the state and armed Islamist groups during which a whole society was held hostage, things do not appear to be very optimistic: here we are again in the same place caught between a patriarchal state and an Islamist revival.

[davidbfpo]

A rare report on Algeria in English, by Andrew Lebovich and a key point:

It challenges the widely held perception of Algeria as stable but stagnant, pointing out that the country has gradually begun to open up.

Link:http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summ..._of_reform5047

One must wonder if all the calculations remain valid as the price of oil drops.

[davidbfpo]

A good, broad brush article on Algeria, entitled:

A Dangerous Combinatio; In Algeria, a restive population and a failing strongman.

Link:http://www.weeklystandard.com/a-dang...rticle/2000700

[davidbfpo]

A political-economic overview of Algeria, with some social aspects too and the sub-title:

Algeria is facing succession scrambles and economic crisis. Why are the country’s leaders handing the country over to the IMF rather than use its political and economic talent?

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-a...to-uncertainty

[davidbfpo]

It is rare to find an Algerian writing about what happened in Algeria IMHO. This 1995 letter addressed to the jihadists resonates today. The introduction:

In this letter written during Algeria’s “dark decade” of fundamentalist violence - sadly relevant today - Mahfoud Bennoune argued that movements purveying “Islamic states” through terror are ultimately “doomed to failure.”

(At the end and we wish)Your movement, which has mistaken the era, the people and the target, is the negation of reason and democracy, of common sense and of Islamic, humanist and universal values. This is the reason why it can never be the bearer of peace, progress, prosperity, culture, civilization or of understanding and cooperation between peoples. Your movement is doomed to failure.

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/mahfoud-bennoune/jihadist-crimes-that-surpass-all-understanding-letter-from-1995-algeria?

[davidbfpo]

A rather pessimistic commentary on Algeria's future after the long and still awaited death of its strongman ruler:http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/h...estroy-the-eu/

[Azor]

A rather pessimistic commentary on Algeria's future after the long and still awaited death of its strongman ruler:http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/h...estroy-the-eu/

So no efforts on a succession plan? The Algerian security establishment is unable to survive his death as Egypt's did Mubarak's fall?