Readings: On Kissinger, Taleb, Tunisia, others

Here are a few interesting pieces of reading from the past months or so. Most are news articles or analysis pieces.

The first two are books.

Re: Protests in Tunisia, Pt. II

Three minutes into Zine el-Abdine Ben Ali’s speech on the two weeks of protests in his country, his phone rang. Already moving through his address in maladroit prose, the president became visibly more stiff and uncomfortable as a cell phone rang through several sections of his speech. He leaned inward, clasped his hands together, extended his arms out — palms down on a wide desk — and then leaned back again. It seemed as if Ben Ali believed that by moving his mouth toward the cluster of microphones sitting in front of him he could drown out the generic ring-tone chirping in the background. The mysterious phone phone call has become the butt of many jokes among Tunisians (and other Arabs).

Mauritanian MPs duke it out: Thoughts

Yesterday, Jamil Ould Mansour and Slama Ould Abdellahi broke into what has been variously described as a “brawl” and “a violent fight lasting several minutes” after a back and forth of insults and profanities during a parliamentary session on the civil status law. Al-Akhbar, which tends to give favorable coverage to Ould Mansour’s Tawassoul party (relevant because other accounts are more ambiguous about which MP made it physical), described the incident as an “attack” by Ould Abdellahi. According to their account, Ould Mansour exceeded his time limit while making a speech. Ould Abdellahi made an intervention to protest the excess. The two began to bicker and the committee chairman called a recess for the two to cool off and reconcile. Reports are unclear as to who began the pushing and shoving but after a few minutes of struggle, parliamentarians from the ruling Union for the Republic (UPR, which also happens to be Ould Abdellahi’s party) “urged Ould Mansour not to respond to what he considered an insult”. The same report paraphrases Ould Mansour as expressing “his regret at the tendency of some parties toward violence rather than dialogue or discussion.” CRIDEM writes that Ould Abdellahi made an intervention during which various MPs called out at in opposition; Ould Mansour then made a series of comments deriding the composition of a committee looking at the marital status law which “did not take into account the different components of Mauritanian society.” During the recess, Ould Mansour come upon Ould Abdellahi “n a very tense discussion interspersed with malicious comments, before coming to blows.” Beyond the personal dimension, there are likely other factors at work.

RE: Protests in Tunisia

Important protests are taking place in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia (as well as the surrounding areas). An unemployed 26-year old man committed suicide sparking mass demonstrations by young people and other residents over unemployment and their quality of life. Police have attempted to block media coverage of the riots (and that the rioting is isolated and being exaggerated by the opposition), but bloggers and activists have posted pictures and video of the disturbances on the Internet. A mathematics teacher died (shot by police) today and others have been severely beaten and tortured. Lina Ben M’henni summarizes the background of Mohamed Bouazizi

who had graduated with Mahdia University a few years ago, but could not find a job. Being the only breadwinner in his family, he decided to earn a living and with his family’s help, he started selling fruit and vegetable from a street stall. His venture gave him very little, enough to guarantee the dignity of his family. But city hall officials were on the look out, and have seized his goods several times. He tried to explain to them that what he was doing was not his choice that he was just trying to survive. Each time, his goods were confiscated, he was also insulted and asked to leave the city hall premises. The last time this happened, Mohamed lost all hope in this life and decided to leave it forever. He poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire.

“News”

Abdelaziz Belkhadem (with the rest of the FLN), in case anyone was wondering, has Abdelaziz Bouteflika as his candidate for president of Algeria in 2014.

Three Geopolitical characteristics of the Maghreb-Sahel sub-region

1.2 Toward a Concept: Geopolitical characteristics of the Maghreb-Sahel sub-region

This post is the second in a series on the broad geopolitics of the Maghreb and Sahel.

While all the states in the Maghreb-Sahel region operate as part of the broad international system and are affected especially by political, economic and social trends in regions in their immediate vicinity — in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Americas and beyond — none of these hold an exclusive hold on any one aspect of life in the region. All of these factors are layered and often episodic. Thus, it is difficult to make sense of the region in terms of strict “civilizational” constructs in the vein of Huntington. John Agnew illustrates this problem well:

Geopolitical Actors in the Maghreb-Sahel

1.1 Framework: Geopolitical Actors in the Maghreb-Sahel: First, Second and Third Tier Actors and Fragmentary Actors

This post is the first in a series on the broad geopolitics of the Maghreb and Sahel.

The key international actors in the Maghreb-Sahel fall into four categories. These groupings are meant to reflect broad the broad, relative influence and interest of major world actors in the region but not equality of power per se. It is possible for political actors to exercise influence at the same level and not be equals in power in absolute, global terms. Their relative interest and effectiveness in the region is diverse. It must also be said that economic power is a driver of political power but that political (which includes economic and social power) action is not always strictly beholden to economic power.