To meet the challenges of massive human displacement in the Middle East and North Africa, civil society actors need a common platform where they can advocate. The MENA Civil Society Network for Displacement or CSND sets out to be that.
By mediating conflicts and combining their assets in the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are slowly cementing an arc of political influence across the region.
Rather than making North Africa safer, securitizing borders has raised the risk of instability along the region’s frontiers, where communities depend on smuggling.
The issue of migration cannot, and should not be handled bilaterally between the Global North and Global South. What is needed instead is a focus on South-South relations to improve the lives of all people involved in migration.
Chinese activity in the Middle East has been a lesson in non-involvement and support for local economic projects; yet, as the Belt and Road Initiative kicks off, China’s role in the MENA region will inevitably change.
Although Maghreb states have tended to pursue border security unilaterally, increased transnational coordination at the local level offers a more sustainable approach.
Although Morocco is aiming to diversify its trade relations into West Africa, political and social opposition within ECOWAS raises questions about its real intentions.
Since its inception, the United Nations Security Council has been paralyzed by the political agendas of the great powers. If the Council is to achieve its main goal of maintaining peace and security, the international community must reconsider the veto power and its impact on the Council’s effectiveness.
If African countries are to achieve their Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, major changes are needed in the fields of funding, allocation of resources, and developing the necessary institutions.
In confronting the Sahel’s transnational security challenges, international actors would benefit from giving Maghreb states a role in stabilization and development.
Perceptions of the Islamic State’s attack on the Yazidis focus on the enslavement of women and girls, but the barbarous gender-based assaults on women as well as men are an integral part of the group’s campaign of genocide to eradicate a religious minority.
This week, three very different cases converge on whether legal codes, restrictions, and punishments will be applied consistently to all countries and individuals, or will be applied selectively on the basis of political alliances and self-interest.
Despite apparent progress toward a power-sharing agreement, Libya’s governing bodies still face problems of neutrality and representation that will hamper their ability to govern effectively.
Those around the world who wonder why domestic and international terrorism, corruption, and illegal migration are on the rise everywhere ought listen to Pope Francis’ message about “new forms of colonialism.”
The rise of the jihadist Al-Shabab group has compounded Somalia’s problems with internal warlords and regional rivalries. Will a new constitution and elections in 2016 finally bring hope to this “failed state?”
Government bulldozers flattened the Badia East squatter district in Lagos earlier this year. Suppose its nine thousand residents had drawn maps, kept records, and documented their community’s dynamism over the past thirty years. Would it have been quite so easy to evict them?
