Title: The Battlefield: Algeria, 1988-2002: Studies in a Broken Polity
Abstract: The Battlefield: Algeria, 1988-2002: Studies in Broken Polity. By Hugh Roberts. London: Verso, 2003. Pp. xix, 402; 2 maps. $25.00/$Can 36.00/£17.00. Since destabilizing riots of 1988, Algeria has suffered great strife, which has claimed approximately 150,000 lives. However, this struggle, like others in developing world, has usually received slight or slanted Western media attention. Nevertheless, there are scholars who have presented perceptive and balanced analyses of Algeria's travails. One of them is Hugh Roberts, British political scientist who is currently director of Algeria Project and senior analyst for Egypt and North Africa with International Crisis Group. He has taught and traveled extensively in Algeria for over three decades and is one is best informed academics regarding country. Thus, his book, collection of his articles and essays produced during this difficult period (along with an interview), is timely and welcomed. For those of us who have admired Roberts's articulate style as well as contributions, The Battlefield is valuable for several reasons. First, it details and differentiates Algerian personalities and parties. Roberts describes emergence of Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, or FIS), splintering of National Liberation Front (Front de Liberation Nationale, or FLN), reinstitutionalization rather than democratization of state, and conflict between government and Kabyles (Berbers). He offers keen analysis of elections and their consequences. second, Roberts addresses epistemological question of Algerian politics: How do we know what we know? This is particularly telling question, given violence of 1990s (Qui tue qui, or Who kills whom?) Roberts particularly criticizes scholars who, from his perspective, fall short in interpretation and analysis by simplifying Algerian conflicts (such as presenting a clash of absolutes, p. 90) or by uncritically accepting foreign (especially French) accounts. Third, book provides an opportunity to view evolution of gifted academic's thought. Roberts has not retouched his essays so as to endow them today with perspicacity they did not originally possess (p. xvi). He is remarkably consistent in interpretation and insight. Although his principal interest is politics, his cross-disciplinary interests in history, anthropology, biology (describing the extravasion of factional conflict, emphasis added), and philosophy, especially Nietzsche, add interesting metaphorical and intellectual breadth to his analyses. …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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