If left unaddressed, the social, economic, and political grievances festering beneath the surface in Algeria could rapidly escalate into popular revolts that threaten the regime's stability. The government must begin enacting managed political reform or face the possibility of collapse. [. . .] Several factors have allowed the Algerian regime to avoid an uprising, including [...]

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This post provides a graphic overview of some of the internal bodies and features of the 2012-2017 Algerian National Assembly (Assemblée Populaire Nationale/al-Majlis al-Sha'abi al-Watani; APN) -- the lower house of the Algerian parliament. The graphics included below include the members of the APN Bureau and Standing/Permanent Committees and Commissions in charts and graphs. The information [...]

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SUMMARY: This post is several posts  originally written in January and February merged together. These posts were put off from being posted for reasons of time, attention deficits, satisfaction. They were all originally experiments in ways of thinking about recent events to do with Algeria's defensive posture (which has been the subject of some much [...]

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Since the beginning of France's intervention in northern Mali (Operation SERVAL), users of the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum have posted continuous news updates on the situation in northern Mali. During much of 2012, forum users have seen Mali as an unqualified success for Salafi-jihadism in Africa, posting long essays and poems praising and theorising the potentials [...]

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SUMMARY: Thus far Algerian press coverage of France's military intervention in northern Mali (Operation SERVAL), in reaction to additional thrusts south by Mali's jihadist coalition, is divided. Scepticism that has been prevalent in Algerian media coverage of calls for the internationalisation of the Malian crisis remains a strong thread in opinion and editorial writing nonetheless. [...]

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SUMMARY: In December this blogger spoke to small audiences about some of the issues facing Mauritania going into 2013. This post is built on the bullet-point notes prepared for these presentations, which were open to the public and represent only his views. This blogger is often more pessimistic than others (bias, admitted) and anticipates an [...]

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Last year, this blog posted a selection of graphs and charts about the newly appointed cabinet led by Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal. Below is a PDF document with a listing of ministers and some biographic information, graphs and diagrams. This is mainly the same information as in previous posts, with some updates for accuracy [...]

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SUMMARY: The following is an excerpt from a longer write up from summer 2012; it comes from the same write up as the post 'Creative Responses to the Rebellion in Mali: A Look at the Forum Poetry' (06 July 2012). This post is one of two; a second excerpt will be posted in the future. [...]

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Several highly relevant articles have been published on the various troubles facing large parts of north-west Africa recently. Some of the ones relevant for this blog's areas of interest are listed below; this includes articles from the summer which remain relevant for perspective or other reasons: Ciavolella, Riccardo. 'Huunde fof ko Politik: Everything Is Politics: [...]

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SUMMARY. This post surveys some of the public discourse on American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Algiers on 29 October 2012, looking at official statements and Algerian press coverage of the visit. It is the base from which this blogger's recent article in the CTC Sentinel ('An Algerian Press Review: Determining Algiers' Position on [...]

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