Algeria Modern

Spared by the Arab revolts, Bouteflika's Algeria continues to intrigue observers. How does its political system function? Who really governs? Who are behind the protests? How strong are the Islamists? Are there alternatives to dependence on hydrocarbons? And how will the regime securities its vast and unstable Sahara hinterland? Algeria has been depicted for many years as politically opaque, incomprehensible, and under the control of powerful, occult-like intelligence agencies. While these caricatures are all partly true, they understate how much the country has changed since the 1990s. Algeria today is complex, and challenging to comprehend; but it is no longer opaque. Algeria Modern analyses the complexity of state and society and the strategies that social and political actors employ. It demonstrates how interest groups that constitute the core of the regime are linked to both the security and business sectors, which while defending their turf and united by shared values are, however, in perennial competition. Embedded in a broader Maghreb and Sahel region that has been marked by civil war, rebellions, and foreign military intervention, many Algerians seem, albeit reluctantly, willing to endure the current hybrid form of authoritarian order as long as it provides a minimum of security and welfare.

"An extremely timely book that addresses comprehensively one of the least known and understood countries in the Arab world, just as it enters a new period of political and economic change. The contributors provide important insights into how Algeria emerged from its traumatic experiences of the 1980s and 1990s and the lessons this provides for the tumult the Arab world is currently experiencing." -- Michael Willis, King Mohamed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies, University of Oxford, and author of Politics and Power in the Maghreb"This volume provides a judicious assessment of how the Bouteflika regime has demilitarized the Algerian polity without, however, altering the architecture of control. It provides a provocative reinterpretation of how politics and power in Algeria have evolved and yet remain the same despite the wholesale house cleaning of the intelligence service. A must-read for those interested in authoritarian resiliency." -- John P. Entelis, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University, and author of, among others, Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized"This book is timely and significant. It both reveals how Algeria has changed since its civil war in the 1990s and how scholars now interpret North Africa's most important country. The contributors, moreover, are acknowledged specialists of the country, or have recently completed research there, and so are ideal guides to its evolving complexities." -- George Joffé, Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, and editor of Islamist Radicalisation in North Africa

Luis Martinez is Senior Research Fellow, CERI/Sciences Po and author of several books on the Maghreb published by Oxford University Press. Rasmus Alenius Boserup is Senior Researcher, Foreign Policy, at the Danish Institute for International Studies.