Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Mauritanian female couscousiéres are struggling to brave the economic challenges forced upon them by Covid-19 containment measures. Below is a glimpse of the suffering endured by female breadwinners who work in this informal sector of the economy.
In confronting the Sahel’s transnational security challenges, international actors would benefit from giving Maghreb states a role in stabilization and development.
Given the grim prospects for resolving the crisis in Mali, North African governments will have to look South on security matters for years to come.
Youth protesters in Mauritania have grown increasingly bold in calling for political and social reforms and are likely to significantly affect the tone and direction of politics in the months ahead.
Most Mauritanian opposition leaders will boycott the June 6 presidential election, in which coup leader Muhammed Ould Abdel Aziz is ensured victory.
Is America serious about democracy and political reform in the Arab world? Does the neo-Wilsonian dimension of the Bush administration's policy toward the region presage a decisive departure from the longstanding realist policy of "regime maintenance"?
There is broad consensus in Washington that a "war of ideas" is a central component of the larger war on terror. And in this war, a prime target is the "poisonous" Arab media environment, particularly the new satellite television channels , which are blamed for spreading anti-American sentiment.
The second of June marked the second anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese writer Samir Qasir, with no indication of who ordered the car bombing that silenced one of the loudest Arab voices criticizing autocratic Arab regimes, particularly the Assad family in Syria.
Until recently Western assistance programs aimed at strengthening political parties were less present in the Arab world than in almost all other areas of the developing world. As part of the heightened U.S. and European interest in promoting Arab political reform, however, such programs are multiplying in the region.
In his first post-victory press conference Mauritanian President-elect Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdullahi called for a broadly inclusive national unity government. He will indeed need a great deal of support to face Mauritania's many political and economic challenges.
Foreign democracy assistance organizations working directly with political parties have come into the line of fire as some Arab governments have pushed back against democratization initiatives over the past two years. In Algeria, Bahrain, and Egypt in particular, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have been among the first to feel pressure.
Mauritania, an often-ignored country in the western periphery of the Arab world, surprised observers two years ago by undertaking one of the most forthcoming advances toward democracy in the region. Democratic reforms came as a result of a 2005 bloodless military coup led by Colonel Ely Ould Muhammad Vall. Vall demonstrated enlightened leadership by pledging to restore democracy.