The New Barbarians: Piracy and Terrorism on the North African Frontier

Since the sixteenth century, North Africa has functioned as a frontier zone for "the West," as a space of abject uncertainty through and against which "the West" is defined and on which "the West" has variously engaged in violent intervention, often by proxy. From the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:CR (East Lansing, Mich.) Mich.), 2005-04, Vol.5 (1), p.179-212
Main Author: Silverstein, Paul A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bush, George W
Civil wars
French language
Government
History
Logic
Piracy
Pirates
Political violence
Politics
Terrorism
Terrorists
Treaties
Violence
War
War on Terror
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Summary:Since the sixteenth century, North Africa has functioned as a frontier zone for "the West," as a space of abject uncertainty through and against which "the West" is defined and on which "the West" has variously engaged in violent intervention, often by proxy. From the final suppression of Barbary piracy with the French colonization of Algeria in 1830 to the military engagement against Algerian Islamist militias during the current civil war that has claimed at least 125,000 lives, North Africa has been at the forefront of the consolidation of state national regimes of violence against forms of economic and political banditry. At various historical moments, including the present "war on terror," these struggles have crossed the Mediterranean, as well as the Atlantic, and have taken on global dimensions. With a focus on the case of political violence in North Africa, this article explores the logic and effects of the war on piracy and terrorism in relation to emerging structures of national sovereignty and international cultural-political-economic hegemony.
ISSN:1532-687X
1539-6630
1539-6630
DOI:10.1353/ncr.2005.0031