Book publication : Lebanon, a phoenix facing the challenge of the international geopolitical chessboard  (1950-2008). by Kazem KHALIFÉ

The position of Lebanon has always been a preponderant one within the Middle East, because of its human wealth and the privileged links it has always had with the West. A Micro-state of 10,452 square kilometres, a refuge mountain, a “message country” (Jean Paul II), it has for a long time been the only parliamentary  democracy in the Arab Orient. Lebanon has known an undisputed prosperity thanks to its dynamism and the genius of its people. In this respect, a local saying reminds us that “When a Lebanese falls into the sea, he comes out with a fish in his mouth”. Its capital, which had been a symbol of Paradise in the East until 1975, is henceforth mentioned to describe the war hell.

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AUTHORITARIANISM AND ALEAS OF THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION IN COUNTRIES OF THE MAGHREB

Pr.  Abdelhak  Azzouzi
Publisher : L’Harmattan
Paris, 2006, 410 pages

Twelve years after the publication of the collective reference book by Ghassan Salamé (‘Democracies without Democrats, Paris: Fayard, 1994) and  three after that of Michel Camau and Vincent Geisseir  (The Authoritarian Syndrome: Politics in Tunisia from Bourguiba to Benali, Paris: Presse des Sciences Po, 2003), Professor Abdelhak Azzouzi’s work published by l’Harmattan is the first of its kind which provides a meticulous analysis on authoritarianism and democratisation, which brings together in a critical and comparative reflection the three main countries of the Maghreb.

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ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLAMIC PUBLIC LAW

Pr Abdallah Harci
Publications of the Moroccan Journal of Local Administration and Development (REMALD)
Collection Manuels et Travaux Universitaires, Pub. El Maarif : El Jadida, Rabat, 2004, 214 pages

At its inception, around 610 A.D., Islam was a real revolution in that it brought about new beliefs and values on at least three levels: religious, social and political. With respect to this issue, the Quran contains only general principles relating to social organization...

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THE US FOREIGN POLICY: 1990-2005

Pr. Hammad Zouitni
Publisher : Infoprint
Fez, 2007, 162 pages

The end of the Cold War resulted in, among other things, a change in the hierarchy of actors on the international scene, particularly with the exclusion of the former USSR from the list of the super powers, thus consecrating the US as the only super power  which was, as a consequence, called upon to manage the unipolar moment’.

If it had been embedded in the conception of the New World Order as announced by President G. Bush Jr. at the aftermath of the 2nd Gulf War (1991), this rather privileged position and the status it conferred on the US could have asserted its position as a, accepted by the allies and the rest of the world given that this New World Order lay the foundations of a better world. This world was meant to be one where international law (norms and institutions) would replace the law of the jungle so that peace would be established in a lasting way, a world where cooperation for development would be revitalized with the aim of reducing poverty in countries of the South. It would be a world where terrorism would be, if not totally eradicated, at least widely contained, a world where individuals would be able to enjoy a certain degree of life quality at the environmental level...

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