The Islamist Challenge in the Middle East and North Africa
Abstract : The Islamist movements in the Middle East and North Africa have caused a great deal of concern for many in the West, as they are seen as a monolithic, fundamental religious phenomenon run by fanatical terrorists. The fact is most Islamist movements develop along local or national lines in response to a variety of social, economic, and political problems. While Islamists do want to increase the importance of their religion in the secular sphere, it is not obvious their goals are antithetical to democracy, their own national interests, or those of the United States. Algeria and Egypt provide two interesting and different examples of the development of national Islamist movements and possible futures. Unfortunately, while it is in the United States' interest to help mediate the conflicts between Islamists and regional governments and alleviate the conditions which give rise to radical Islamism, there is actually very little that the West has the power or influence to do.
The Algerian Crisis: Algeria's Ruinous Impasse and the Honourable Way Out
This article examines the nature of the continuing conflict within Algeria. The author considers in detail and rejects the main elements of the official French position on the conflict. He suggests that an accurate analysis of its component factors and of recent attempts at moves towards a resolution indicates that a valid, internally achieved solution is by no means impossible. For this to happen, the army needs to reconsider its position as the depository of popular sovereignty, which it can no longer sustain, and France needs to cease its covert obstruction of such initiatives as the 1995 Rome platform.
The Gulf War 1990–1991 and the study of international relations
The Gulf crisis of 1990–1991 was, by any standards, one of the more significant international crises of the post-1945 epoch. It involved the mobilization of around one million armed men, the diplomatic involvement of much of the international community, and a war that, for all its limited character, was a significant case of inter-state conflict. In what follows I do not want to dwell on the actual course of this war or to examine in detail specific aspects of the history, not least because the broad outline of what happened is already well known. I do, however, want to look at this conflict in broader perspective, and from two vantage points in particular, each pertinent to the study of international relations (IR).