Publications

In 2018, Morocco became the first country of departure for migrants from Africa, as Spain became, simultaneously, the most important gateway to Europe during the same year. For Spain, this development revived fears generated by the events of autumn 2005, when hundreds of migrants breached, for the first time, the security fences between its cities [...]

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is both the source of concern about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the driving force pushing for multilateral arms control. While most states in the region are parties to – or have signed, but not ratified – the multilateral WMD-related arms control treaties, the few outstanding cases [...]

This paper examines the links between jihadi organizations and illegal criminal activities in the Sahel region. Based on extensive interviews conducted in the region, the paper argues that, while radical organizations are linked with activities such as human trafficking and drug trafficking, this is not their main sources of revenue, which in fact generally comes [...]

In the MENA region the important technological trends of digitalization and of information and communications technologies (ICT) are very diverse due to different levels of development both between and within countries. Aspects like infrastructure, economic conditions, job market, social media are discussed. Adequate governance for innovation and specifically ICT is severely lacking in most of the MENA [...]

How have armed conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen challenged or weakened each state? This report underlines the main dynamics that have affected state capacity and authority and highlights the key challenges facing policymakers in rebuilding centralized, efficient and legitimate states. It puts particular emphasis on the need for building consensus around governance mechanisms [...]

This paper analyses the dynamics of relations between the two regional powers in the Maghrebi sub-regional system: Algeria and Morocco. More specifically, it examines the trajectory of the long and complex interactions between those two states as well as the key issues at stake, especially the Saharan problem. Based on extensive interviews conducted in both [...]

This paper explores how the current dynamics in the energy market sector affect, and are affected by, the interactions between the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the global order. In particular, it aims to answer the overarching question: “Is MENA peripheral to or embedded in global dynamics in relation to energy?” To [...]

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is increasingly embebbed into the global order in the transnational field, namely through the intra- and interregional interactions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with state actors. The phenomenon is investigated in the framework of the “international NGO triangle”, namely the system of relations between the non-governmental organization, the [...]

Existing regional cooperation platforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are internally fragmented and largely ineffective. Focusing on the League of Arab States, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Arab Maghreb Union, this paper discusses attempts to re-energize and instrumentalize existing regional organizations following the Arab uprisings. It shows that regional [...]