This book examines U.S. foreign policy decision-making and conduct from a psychological perspective that focuses on the structures as well as the content of mental images held collectively and individually by the foreign policy elite. Two case studies, arms sales to Morocco in the context of the Western Sahara war and liquefied natural gas contracts with Algeria, are used to illustrate the usefulness of this perspective. The methodological tool used is of Cognitive Mapping, which consists of reconstructing mental images relevant to the issues examined by way of a sophisticated method that dissects policy statements, breaks them down into concepts with causal linkages, and then feeds them into a computer program that uncovers important characteristics for each image. The author then makes interesting inferences linking these technical characteristics of cognitive maps, or images, to policy orientations and action. The case studies analyzed with this method relate to U.S. foreign policy with regard to North Africa. The author tries to find answers to a set of empirical questions that have not often been addressed: Why have U.S. foreign policy makers ignored North African countries for so long in spite of their strategic location and natural resources? Why do radical images persist when there have been opportunities to negotiate rationally with the countries of that region? And why did the U.S. government reverse itself in 1979 when it decided to sell offensive weapons to Morocco in spite of U.S. and international restrictions, and in spite of some obvious potential negative effects of these sales on regional conflicts and on U.S. standing in the area? Also, why did the biggest economic deal the U.S. has ever had with a Third World country (Algeria) fail as soon as President Reagan came into office? These empirical questions are tackled along with theoretical concerns dealing with the subjective domain of foreign policy making. The framework used for the analysis of the historical data and the interviews conducted yielded interesting conclusions as to how foreign policy makers viewed the North African region, its countries, and the issues at stake. The methodology used explains, through simple graphs and indices of complexity and simplicity of mental structures, how situations were defined and responded to by various U.S. administrations. The results show how unconscious thought processes and specific categories of cognitive structures may affect the choice of a policy alternative, and demonstrate the role of images as intervening variables between the international environment and state behavior. This book should appeal to students and scholars of foreign policy, international relations, negotiations, and North African politics. Political scientists interested in computer modeling will also find in it interesting propositions.

No detailed description available for "The United States and North Africa".

This bibliography, first published in 1990, is a result of a quarter-century professional and personal relationship between two academics interested in Middle East studies. The comprehensive bibliography consists of western, primarily English, language sources published through 1988 and early 1989 concerning foreign policy toward the Middle East and North Africa during the twentieth century. Included are materials that deal directly with the topic, material that has appeared in published form, ie books, monographs, essays and articles. Also included are some non-published items, most importantly American and British doctoral dissertations and master’s theses.

This book offers the first critical engagement with the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Challenging conventional wisdom on the origins and contemporary dynamics of capitalism in the region, these cutting-edge essays demonstrate how critical political economy can illuminate both historical and contemporary dynamics of the region and contribute to wider political economy debates from the vantage point of the Middle East. Leading scholars, representing several disciplines, contribute both thematic and country-specific analyses. Their writings critically examine major issues in political economy—notably, the mutual constitution of states, markets, and classes; the co-constitution of class, race, gender, and other forms of identity; varying modes of capital accumulation and the legal, political, and cultural forms of their regulation; relations among local, national, and global forms of capital, class, and culture; technopolitics; the role of war in the constitution of states and classes; and practices and cultures of domination and resistance. Visit politicaleconomyproject.org for additional media and learning resources.

A Survey Of The History, Culture, And Foreign Relations Of The Maghrib And Its Importance To The United States And The Western World.

Foreign Policy in North Africa explores how the foreign policies of North African states, which occupy a peripheral and subaltern position within the global system, have actively responded to the constraints and opportunities stemming from multi-level transformations in the 2010s. What has been the extent of continuity and change in each country’s foreign policy-making and behaviour under such conditions? Which structural and agential factors explain the variations observed, or the lack thereof? Building on scholarship on foreign policy in the Global South and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as the international impact of the 2011 Arab uprisings, case studies on six different countries focus on a specific level of analysis for each. These range from the global (Tunisia’s financial predicaments and foreign debt negotiations) through the (sub)regional (Egypt’s relationship of necessity with Saudi Arabia, Algeria’s half-hearted policies towards the conflicts in Libya and Mali) to the domestic sphere (Morocco’s power balance between the monarchy and the Islamist-led government, Libya’s extreme state weakness and internal competition among proliferating actors), reaching also the deeper non-state societal level in the case of Mauritania. The volume concludes by examining post-2011 developments in the longstanding Algerian–Moroccan rivalry which hinders regional integration in the Maghreb. Foreign Policy in North Africa will be of great interest to scholars of North African politics and international relations, Middle Eastern and North African studies, foreign policy and global international relations. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of The Journal of North African Studies.

North Africa differs from the Middle East in several significant ways. It was subject to a uniform colonial experience as part of the French empire; its populations are far more culturally homogeneous than those of the Middle East; and, since the Reconquista, it has always been far more susceptible to European influences than has the Middle East. It has thus had a far better basis for regional integration and for effective state formation than has the Middle East itself. In the post-Cold War world, North Africa took on a new significance for Europe as issues of migration and regional trade began to dominate the European agenda. This book, first published in 1993, endeavours to investigate the background to the political developments of modern North Africa. It not only looks at the pre-colonial past but also investigates the effect of the colonial period itself on the regional dimension in view of the creation of the UMA, a confederal regional organisation, in early 1989. The contributors to this volume are all people with long experience of the North African political and historical scene.