The Policy Briefs of Sciences Po Rabat

There are many criticisms regularly le-veled at contemporary African national armies when it comes to assessing their ef-fectiveness on the ground. Poorly trained, ill-equipped, badly paid, corrupt, often considered as "praetorian guards of po-wer" ... It is quite simple today to qualify them pejoratively. More profoundly, the very question of the viability and auto-nomy of defense policies in a large number of African states regularly challenges the international political community.

Policy briefs de Sciences Po Rabat n°2Health measures in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic: the risk of cognitive dissonance2In order to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, most governments have put in place sanitary measures: these include the application of "barrier gestures" as well as various limita-tions, ranging from the partial or total closure of certain places to the confinement of the po-pulation. The same governments, as well as certain experts, editorial writers and journa-lists, tend to attribute the increase in Covid-19 cases to unreasonable, even uncivil beha-viour on the part of citizens, who are not ma-ture enough to meet the obligations imposed on them; the least unfavourable comments speak of the population's "fed up".

Dans l'espace sahélien convergent les luttes idéologiques et les activités économiques irrégulières menées par des groupes armés qui se disputent le contrôle territorial de la zone afin de préserver leurs activités lucratives, rendant plus difficile la « lutte contre le terrorisme ». Cette analyse mène une réflexion sur les acteurs et les conflits hybrides. Elle montre que la racine politique du conflit s’affaiblit en faveur de la recherche du profit.

The  Covid-19  pandemic  marked  a  conside-rable halt for the majority of economic activities,  and  more  particularly  those  of  the  tertiary  sector.  The  service  sector  has  suffered greatly  from  the  crisis,  being  mostly  consi-dered  non-essential,  except  for  telecommuni-cations,  which  has  not  undergone  any  re-markable change since 16 March and the start of  containment  measures.  At  the  same  time, other sectors, which at first glance cannot be considered to be guided by profitability logics, have also been impacted by the crisis brought about by the coronavirus.

About ten years ago, the Arab Uprisings erupted in the Mid-dle East and North Africa (MENA) region marking a memorable mo-ment of revolutionary aspirations and of calls for political reform.In this attempt to com-memorate ten years since the Arab Uprisings and the marking 2011 revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that sent lasting shockwaves in the MENA region, we can remember an im-wearing dignity lesson from the Arab world to the rest of it.This dignity lesson is about a need to develop political institutions, em-power the youth and expand their share of the economy, and, finally, accept diversities at last