January 2021 – Swedish Middle East & North Africa Network

19/01/202119/01/2021

Policy paper on conflict mediation and peacebuilding in the Sahel region

Conflict Mediation and Peacebuilding in the Sahel: The Role of Maghreb Countries in an African Framework

Authors: Amal Bourhrous, Dr. Virginie Baudais, Dr. Dylan O’Driscoll
January, 2021

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Abstract

Conflict dynamics in the Sahel are complex. The region faces a multidimensional crisis that includes the proliferation of terrorist groups, criminal networks, environmental pressures, state weaknesses and severe governance problems. In addition to this internal context, the Sahel crisis has been affected by external factors, such as the fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the civil war in Libya. Its deeper causes can be found in the structural factors of fragility in the sociopolitical dynamics of internal divisions, serial uprisings and weak states. Having started as a largely Malian conflict, the crisis now affects the whole Sahel region and, despite the deployment of military and security operations, it continues to get worse. A new approach is needed.

14/01/202123/02/2021

Webinar Global Media Representation of the Syrian City of Raqqa: a roundtable debate

On 11 December 2020, School of Arts and Communication at Malmö University hosted a panel debate to discuss the symbolism and media representation of the Syrian city of Raqqa, in various news and media outlets, films, books and series.

Raqqa city features in many different shapes and forms, for example in books such as the Road from Raqqa and here in Sweden a TV-series called “Kalifat” is partly situated in Raqqa city as the backdrop hotbed of jihadism and ISIS. Viewers do not actually get to know the city. In other words, everybody knows Raqqa nowadays but nobody actually knows the city and its people.

The aim of this panel to give a more in-depth and nuanced insight into this Syrian city that has become well-known globally. The roundtable is conducted by a panel of Syrian writers and journalists from Raqqa as well as scholarly media experts from Sweden.

Panel members:

• Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Dissident Syrian-Arab Writer from Raqqa, also called “the conscience of the Syrian Revolution”, author of 8 books on Syria
• Mazen Hassoun, Syrian Journalist from Raqqa, founder of “Al-Raqqa post”
• Hussam Eesa, Journalist from Raqqa, founding-member of “Raqqa is being slaughteredsilently”
• Josepha Wessels, author of “Documenting Syria: Film-making, Video Activism and
Revolution” K3, Malmö University, Sweden (moderator)

Watch the webinar

04/01/202119/01/2021

Article on Iran’s strategic interests in Yemen

What is in Yemen for Iran? A Realist Assessment of Tehran’s
Strategic Calculus in the Arabian Peninsula

Author: Maysam Behravesh
December, 2020

A chapter in “Navigating the Regional Chessboard” (Ed. Vogt, Achim & Schmid, Sarah), December 2020

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Abstract

This article addresses Iran’s involvement in Yemen from a realist perspective and in the wider framework of the geopolitical rivalry between the Islamic Republic on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and its allies, particularly the United States, on the other. Focusing on the “demand” side of the civil war, or motives and incentives for its perpetuation, it tries to delineate how Iranian leaders perceive Yemen and how Tehran uses this pivotal node of “strategic depth” in the Arabian Peninsula for deterrence, security provision as well as power projection purposes. The article concludes Iran is in Yemen for the long haul and therefore urges a holistic policy approach to conflict resolution that recognizes long-term interests and concerns of all major conflicting parties on the ground and seeks to make Iran’s intervention and involvement in Yemen less necessary rather than more costly.