1 December, London

 

Cross-border Information (CbI) is holding its second North AfricaHardball meeting of the year to discuss a series of critical issues for business across the region.

A morning-long executive dialogue, North AfricaHardball 2 will be held at 33 Bury St. in London’s St James’s area – home of the Middle East Association and CbI’s London office – on 1 December.

North AfricaHardball will draw on CbI’s reputation as a prominent source of analysis and information about North Africa.

The dialogue will be led by Jon Marks, CbI chairman, associate fellow of Chatham House and Maghreb-watcher for over 30 years. Comment will be provided by CbI’s John Hamilton – whose work on Libya, in particular, is widely admired – plus a number of invited experts including Hakim Darbouche, Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Noman Benotman, Senior Analyst, Quilliam, and Lakhdar Ghettas, Maghreb Affairs Initiative Coordinator within the Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEASs.

After each topic has been introduced, the floor will be open to the participants round the table to add their own thoughts and insights.

AfricaHardball is played out under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

 

TIMINGS

09.00-09.20 Registration and coffee

11.15-11.30  Coffee break

13.00 North Africa Hardball closes with an informal networking lunch

 

THEMES

WHITHER THE ‘ARAB SPRING’?

The Hardball team will start by posing a number of key questions:

Are Tunisia’s elections a model for the rest of the region to follow?  Can Tunis deliver up sufficient economic gains to keep popular unrest under control?

Has the Egyptian revolution been ‘stolen’ by the SCAF?  To what extent have rational economics been subsumed by political points-scoring and different tendencies’ ideological preferences?  We will examine the IMF affair and attitudes to business for clues.

Has Morocco seen off the challenge of radical change by committing itself to deeper reforms, elections and a more inclusive system?  We will ask whether there really is a Moroccan exception.

In Algeria, President Bouteflika is imposing a version of reform from above: can this really work in the region’s changed environment?  Jon Marks will report back from Algiers and Oran on the mood, and analysts will also chart the direction of energy policy.

Can Libya’s NTC regime create a pluralist government that will include a majority of Libyans in the country’s reconstruction?

REGIONAL CONTEXTS

We will also tackle some wider questions, asking whether a new regional order will emerge on the southern flank of the Mediterranean.  Among issues to be discussed here are the following:

Libya’s new position in the region, Africa, the wider world.

Algeria and Morocco, the disputed Western Sahara and prospects for reviving the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).

Europe: with the region’s key trading partner in crisis, can we predict how the Euro-Mediterranean space will evolve in the next five years?

Energy policy: how does the region fit into geostrategic calculations now?

Multilateral initiatives: is the ‘Deauville Consensus’ really going to open up the financing taps?  Will Gulf states provide (not least with Morocco apparently joining the GCC)?  How is the IMF positioned after its standoff with Egypt?

 

BOOK NOW – places are limited to preserve the roundtable format.