Chair: Dr Amanda Chisholm, Senior Lecturer in Security Studies / Researcher in Gender and Security

Speaker: Inga Trauthig, PhD candidate at the Department of War Studies 

Discussant: Professor Jonathan Hill, Director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies & Professor of International Relations

Over the course of ten years since protests in which demonstrators called for dignity and civil rights spread across North Africa, the political landscape there remains diverse. Governance ranges from constitutional monarchy in Morocco, to ailing army rule in Algeria, to challenged democracy in Tunisia, to civil and militia rule in Libya to an authoritarian, aspiring dictatorship in Egypt.

Delving into one policy area, Inga Trauthig will discuss the counterterrorism (CT) and counter violent extremism (CVE) policies and practices of five North African countries: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco from 2011-2021. She will outline which policies exist on paper, and how they are implemented institutionally and societally, including exploring how the region is defined by a security-heavy approach, with most countries relying on military means to fight terrorism.

She will also discuss how, from a Western perspective, two security policy concerns dominate foreign strategy deliberations about the North Africa region. The first is the anxiety around migration from and through these countries into Europe, seen by some as a burden on European societies and economies. Secondly, there is the fear of security threats, such as terrorism, spilling over into Europe or endangering foreigners in North Africa. She will therefore also address how Western assistance has buttressed certain CT and CVE practices.

 

Bio

Inga Kristina Trauthig is a PhD candidate at the War Studies Department and Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London.

She holds an MLitt in Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St Andrews and attended the University of Würzburg and the University of Texas at Austin for her undergraduate studies. Her studies have been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and the Conflict Research Society.

Inga has conducted work with UN-organisations, NGOs and private companies that addressed root causes of civil strife as well as practical and ideological competition between state and non-state actors in the Middle East. At King’s College, she is convener of the MENA Research Group within the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies (IMES).

 

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