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Mauritania's Foreign Policy: the Search for Protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anthony G. Pazzanita
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Extract

Of the 21 members of the Arab League, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania has received perhaps the least attention, ranking far behind other North African states, much less those closer to the Arab—Israeli fault-line or the recent Gulf conflict. Mauritania's desperate economic condition (a G.N.P. per capita of only $446 in 1984) has been occasionally publicised, as well as advancing desertification (reaching even into the centre of the capital, Nouakchott), and the tensions between the ruling Beydane (‘white’) Arabs, supported by their cultural/political allies, and the black African tribes concentrated in the Senegal River valley that erupted into violence in April 1989, and which led to a near-war between Senegal and Mauritania.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 281 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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62 This may help to explain why few of the many severe criticisms made during 1988–91 about the régime's political alignment and human rights record were directed against Ould Taya personally.

63 Africa Confidential, 29 June 1990 and 8 02 1991.

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66 Ibid. pp. 9811–2. See also, FBIS-NES, 18 October 1990, p. 16, for statement by Mauritania's Foreign Minister that his country opposes the invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq.

67 West Africa, 28 January–3 February 1991, p. 113, and E.I.U. Country Report, Mauritania, No. 1, 1991, p. 39. The stories of refuge for Saddam Hussein's family were denied by Mauritania. See also, FBIS-NES, 17 and 22 January 1991, pp. 8 and 18, respectively.Google Scholar

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70 See ARB/PS, 28, 1, 1–31 January 1991, p. 9734, and West Africa, 1–7 April 1991, p. 483, 22–28 April 1991, pp. 600–1, 13–19 May 1991, p. 756, and 8–14 July 1991, p. 1124. Also, The Boston Globe, 21 August 1991.

71 E.I.U. Country Report, Mauritania, 3, 1991, pp. 11–12 and 34–5. For an assessment of the proposed reforms and the reaction of opposition forces, see ARB/PS, 28, 4, April 1991, pp. 10081–3, and West Africa, 29 April–5 May 1991, p. 654. On the promulgation of the constitution and multi-partyism, see ARB/PS, 28, 8, August 1991, p. 10230.

72 See Nordlinger, Eric A., Soldiers in Politics: military coups and governments (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977), pp. 65–6 (general observations), 88–92 (economic concerns and internal violence), and 149–59 (military attitudes in ‘communally divided societies’).Google Scholar