By Antonin TISSERON, Research fellow at the Thomas More Institute | Note published by IFRI | Available in French

On May 10th, the Algerians voters will have to go to the polls for a single-round legislative election to appoint the 462 Algerian MP’s. Announced on February 9th of this year by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the stakes of this ballot are high for the regime. Indeed, President Bouteflika wants to convince that Algeria is changing while he is facing a new opposition and Islamic groups which hope to benefit from the new impetus provided by the results of their neighbor’s ballots. But in spite of the recent political openness, caution may be appropriate regarding this ballot whose role is to appoint an assembly with (...)

Text of the speech of Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Research Fellow at the Thomas More Institute, at the conference « NATO and the « enlarged Mediterranean » | Arab Spring, intervention in Libya, partnerships », organized by the Catholic University Santa Cuore of Milano (Italy), on May 3rd, 2012.

Too often, the Mediterranean is thought like a “Mare Nostrum”, and that area is the subject of various lyric discourses. However, this both unitary and restricted representation is not in phase with long-term history, world geo-economics and geopolitical dynamics. We have to think in the framework of a “greater Mediterranean space” farbeyond the shores of this basin. This “greater Mediterranean space” is made of antagonist (...)

Interview with Antonin TISSERON, Research fellow at the Thomas More Institute, about the security consequences of the malian events on the Maghreb/Sahel zone | Le Soir, April 6th, 2012 | Available in French 

Quelles sont les réelles ambitions des touaregs du MNLA face à l’incapacité militaire de la junte qui a pris le pouvoir à Bamako ?

Les ambitions affichées par le MNLA (ndlr : Mouvement national de libération de l’Azawad) depuis le déclenchement de la rébellion sont l’indépendance de l’Azawad et une autodétermination pour les populations. Au début de la rébellion, les insurgés ont aussi affirmé leur volonté de s’en prendre au président malien Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT), mais avec la junte au (...)

Interview with Antonin TISSERON, Research fellow at the Thomas More Institute, about the security consequences of the malian events on the Maghreb/Sahel zone | Les Afriques, March 29th, 2012 | Available in French 

Y-a-t-il un impact sécuritaire à craindre au Maghreb avec le déclenchement de la rébellion Touaregue au Mali ?

Oui, et principalement pour les incidences de la rébellion sur l’État malien et la lutte contre les groupes terroristes. À la fin de l’année 2010, le Mali a en effet lancé avec l’aide de bailleurs internationaux un programme ambitieux visant à renforcer la présence de l’État dans le Nord. Quatre mois plus tard, la nomination de Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga au poste de ministre des (...)

Special Project on the occasion of the publication of the Second Report of the Thomas More Institute on the sustainable security in the Maghreb | February 2012

One year after the beginning of "Arab Spring", the situation in Libya is far from stable and the southern banks of the Mediterranean remain unsettled and fragile. As neighbours and the primary economic partners of the Maghreb countries, the European Union and Europeans need to review their strategy in the light of the new local parameters. New circumstances require a new response.

Such is the ambition of the Thomas More Institute which presented its analyses and its proposals on February 16th, 2012, on the occasion of a conference in Brussels. Find in this file the (...)