Overview

The overthrow of the regime of President Ben Ali in Tunisia on 14 January 2011 took the world by surprise. The popular revolt in this small Arab country and the effect it had on the wider Arab world prompted questions as to why there had been so little awareness of it up until that point. It also revealed a more general lack of knowledge about the surrounding western part of the Arab world, or the Maghreb, which had long attracted a tiny fraction of the outside interest shown in the eastern Arab world of Egypt, the Levant and the Gulf. This book examines the politics of the three states of the central Maghreb - Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco - since their achievement of independence from European colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s. It explains the political dynamics of the region by looking at the roles played by various actors such as the military, political parties and Islamist movements and addresses issues such as Berber identity and the role played by economics, as well as how the states of the region interact with each other and with the wider world.

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9781849043922

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Reviews

'Michael Willis has sought to encompass the political evolution of the three core countries that make up the Maghreb - Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - in terms of how power has been articulated and exercised there from independence until the present day. - This is a bold and ambitious attempt to treat the Maghreb as a region with parallel, yet individual national experiences that must be treated together to define the region's specificities and to highlight its common experiences. Indeed, it is this approach that gives this study much of its originality. - This should become an essential introductory reading for everybody interested in North Africa, whether for academic or professional purposes.' - George Joffe, Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge

'Michael Willis has sought to encompass the political evolution of the three core countries that make up the Maghreb - Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - in terms of how power has been articulated and exercised there from independence until the present day. - This is a bold and ambitious attempt to treat the Maghreb as a region with parallel, yet individual national experiences that must be treated together to define the region's specificities and to highlight its common experiences. Indeed, it is this approach that gives this study much of its originality. - This should become an essential introductory reading for everybody interested in North Africa, whether for academic or professional purposes.' * George Joffe, Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge *

Author Information

MICHAEL J. WILLIS is King Mohamed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies at St Antony's College, Oxford University. Prior to this he taught politics for seven years at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. His research focuses on the politics, modern history and international relations of the Maghreb. His previous publications include The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History.

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