DIIS konference: Algeriet efter revolter: Mellem påstande, udholdenhed og regional sikkerhed

TID: Tirsdag den 3. juni kl. 09-17

STED: DIIS, Danish Institute for International Studies, Main auditorium, Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, 2100 København Ø.

TILMELDING: Participation and lunch is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form no later than Tuesday 27 May 2014 at 12.00 noon. Sign up

Algeria after the Revolts: Contention, Endurance, and Regional Security

Algeria is the major regional power in North Africa and in the Sahel region. It boasts the region’s largest military budgets, the largest quantum of easily accessible and exportable natural gas, the largest population group (excluding Egypt) and the most experienced counter insurgency forces on the African continent.

Although the Arab Revolts from 2011 on the surface had little impact on Algeria, the country is now ripe with social and political conflict suggesting that its political order may be profoundly challenged.

Social protest and contention has increased over the past decade. The role of Islamist contenders remains unclear. 

Eradication and amnesty policies have not fully uprooted the country’s active terrorist networks. And the regime itself holds little political legitimacy within large segments of the population: political participation continues to decrease for the second decade, corruption endures in the public and private sector alike, elite renewal appears blocked, and the coercive agencies remain involved in political decision-making.

On top of that, an apparently unresolved succession crisis threatens the ability of the regime to retain its coherence.

Finally, the Algerian state is located within a region in political and security flux as indicated by the state-collapse of Algeria’s southern neighbour, Mali, and the enduring threat to the state-order in Libya after the fall of Qaddafi.

The conference Algeria after the Revolts: Between Contention, Endurance and Regional Security will convene a number of distinguished international experts on contemporary Algerian and North African affairs to address these and related concerns.

The conference aims to shed light on the correlation between the social contention and the operational forms of Algeria’s autocratic regime. It furthermore seeks to relate this correlation to the question of stability of the broader regional order in North Africa and the Sahel region.

The conference consists of a keynote, three panels, and a closing lecture – all presented by leading experts on contemporary Algerian and Arab affairs. 

The conference is coordinated by Senior Researcher at DIIS, Dr. Rasmus Alenius Boserup ([email protected]), Research Director at CERI, Sciences Po, Dr. Luis Martinez ([email protected]) and Senior Researcher Emeritus at DIIS, Dr. Ulla Holm ([email protected]). For practical information please contact Jakob Dreyer ([email protected]). The conference forms part of a research project funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Speakers

• John T. Chalcraft, Associate Professor, London School of Economics
• Salma Belaala, Research fellow, University of Warwick
• Layla Baamara, Science Po Aix
• Luis Martinez, Research director, CERI, Sciences Po
• Louisa Dris-Aït Hamadouche, Assistant professor, Université d’Alger
• Isabelle Werenfels, Head of the Middle East and Africa Research Division, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin
• Anouar Boukhars, Assistant professor, McDaniel College and non-resident scholar, Carnegie Endowment
• Claire Spencer, Head of Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
• Rasmus Alenius Boserup, Senior researcher, DIIS
• Ulla Holm, Senior Researcher Emeritus, DIIS

 

Programme

9.00-9.20: Coffee and registration

9.20-9.45: Opening: Why Algeria? 

9.45-10.30: Keynote lecture: Contention and Political Change in the Contemporary Arab World

10.30-10-45: Coffee break

10.45-12.15: Session one, Dynamics of Contention in Algeria

10.45-11.15: Mobilizing Salafism

11.15-11.45: Youth Mobilization and Movements

11.45-12.15: Comments from the chair and questions from the audience

12.15-13.15: Lunch

13.15-14.45: Session two, Regime Dynamics in Algeria

13.15-13.45: Dynamics of Regime Endurance

13.45-15.15: Sufis and the Configuration of State Elites

15.15-14.45: Comments from the chair and questions from the audience

14.45-15.00: Coffee break

15.00-16.30: Session three, Algeria and Regional Security Dynamics

15.00-15.30: Algeria’s Paranoid Regional Policy

15.30-16.00: Western Sahara and the Maghreb Security Complex

16.00-16.30: Comments from the chair and questions from the audience

16.30-17.00: Closing remarks: Future Scenarios: Algeria after the Elections

 

The seminar will be in English.

 

Read more.