North Africa in the face of EI threats

The Mandela Institute, in partnership with IAM and ASEAF, is organizing the conference:

North Africa in the face of threats from the organisation of the Islamic State

Monday, March 16, 2015 from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Town Hall of the 2nd, Conference room,

16 rue Léopold Bellan -75002 PARIS

Metro: Trail – line 3

Since September 11, 2001, terrorism in all its forms and manifestations has continued to be one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. It opened a new era: mini-terrorism was replaced by mega-terrorism. The « war on terrorism » is, since the only type of war waged by the West, a war both internal and external to States. The expression, coined at the time of the attacks of 11 September 2001, postulates the possibility of putting an end to terrorism and the construction of the normative context is certainly one of the key points, but it does not, in fact, propose a way of achieving this objective.

Al-Qaeda has evolved into decentralized franchises. Terrorist organizations in North Africa and the Sahel region have evolved over the past five years. The terrorist threat has spread from North and East Africa to West and Central Africa, covering the Sahel, which extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Indeed, the stability of this region determines the security of the African continent and the world.

Despite the countless fractures that criss-cross the region, and the decompartmentalization between the Mediterranean Maghreb and the Sahel, North Africa is confronted with the dynamics of the Daech in the subversive and terrorist field of conflict shaped and structured by the transnational jihadist movement, is called upon to define and apply an integrated strategic framework for the fight against terrorism. The global approach would make it possible to synergize a multiplicity of instruments, complementary to States’ initiatives.

The question of the Islamic State, whose project is enthusiastically welcomed by the jihadist community and a force of attraction for some young Westerners, requires us to question this phenomenon. In view of the seriousness of the terrorist threat to the African continent and its populations, the conference will take stock of this complex and constantly changing landscape as well as the issues and challenges of transforming North Africa into a strategic area in the fight against terrorism.

Schedule

Official opening

Mr Jacques Boutault, Mayor of the 2nd Arrondissement of Paris

HEM Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu, Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to France

Moderation: Paul KANANURA, President of the Mandela Institute / Jean Baptiste HARELIMANA, Africa World Institute

Speakers

Daech: global defence against a global threat

General Dominique TRINQUAND, Defence and Security Expert, Director of External Relations of the Marck Group

The headlong rush of Daech and Al-Qaida, the two competing Salafist jihadist movements

Alain Rodier, Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Specialist in Terrorism and Organized Crime, Director of Research at CF2R

What strategy to fight Daech?

Dr. Mohamed Larbi HAOUAT, Associate Researcher at the Paris Academy of Geopolitics and IPSE

The Koran and terrorism

Dr. Karim Ifrak, Arabic Codicology, Intellectual History and Life of Thought in the Muslim Worlds, C.N.R.S, UPR76

Counter-radicalization and geopolitics of the Maghreb

Pierre Conesa, Former senior official of the Ministry of Defence, Senior Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and ENA

Testimony: Links between Sahel jihadists and Libyans in Mistrata

Beatriz Mesa, Journalist and war reporter

Geopolitics of terrorism from the Maghreb to the Mashreq

Prof. Abderrahmane Mekkaoui, Expert on Strategic and Military Issues, Professor at the University of Casablanca and Dijon, Administrator of the Mandela Institute

An approach for a Tunisian counter-terrorism strategy

Colonel-major Mokhtar Ben Nasr, President of the Tunisian Centre for Global Security Studies

Daech’s rise in power in Cyrenaica and its consequences on the future of Libya

Gebril Ghanem, Professor at the Tobruk Faculty of Law, Omar Al Mokhtar University

The Moroccan experience in the fight against terrorism: assessment and prospects

Prof. Mohamed Zerouali, Director of the Master’s Degree « Geopolitics, Security, Defence » and of LERIAP, Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Oujda

Egypt in the face of attacks and jihadist attacks by Al-Qaeda-based groups with allegiance to the Islamic State Organization

Prof. Emad Awwad, Director of Political Science Research and Former Ambassador of Egypt

Living together in the face of diffuse domestic threats

Olivier Stirn, Former Minister, President of the CNFD, Honorary President of the Mandela Institute

Free access – Registration required at institut.mandela@gmail.com