Ifrigia wal A'lem This book is divided into nine chapters: Chapter one describes the political evolution of the continent from a one-party system, to an era of military coups, down to the current period of tribal or ethnic coalitions pretending to be multi-party experiments. The future trends of political development in the continent are examined, with emphasis on multi-partisan politics as the genuine long-term solution to the instability in the region. The increased importance of the role of intellectuals in the politics of the next century is one of thesuggested recommendations. Chapter two deals with the US-UN political and humanitarian roles in the continent especially in the 1990s. A country-to-country study is provided, especially of those countries undergoing political turmoil. The American administrations' democratization mission in the continent, both in Anglophone and Francophone nations, is explored. The US influence on the IMF and the World Bank in pushing through the ongoing reform packages in Africa, and the double standards the financial giants apply in different parts of the continent are also discussed. The clash between US and UN interests in Africa is alsoanalyzed. Chapter three examines the United Nations humanitarian and political role in Africa beginning from the 1960s up to the Rwanda disaster of April 1994. The chapter also explores the role of the UN agencies in developmental policies, human rights monitoring and relief work in the continent. Chapter four discusses the contributory role of human rights abuses in Africa in shaping 21st century Euro-African relations. The emphasis of the most European countries in linking financial and developmental aid to the region with the human rights records of individual African nations seems to be an alarming symptom of the future deterioration of relations between Africa and the emerging 'united Europe'. The political and specially the economic effects of 'united Europe' policies on Afro-European relations in the 21st century are also examined. Chapter five evaluates the political and diplomatic relations between OAU and Arab League. After the Yemeni-Eritrean border conflict of 1996, relations between the two organizations were severely affected to the point of an open war of words between the twosecretaries general. Another discordant issue is whether the North African members of the OAU, who wield enormous powers in the organization, have the right to do so or not. The chapter also discusses and evaluates Afro-Arab relations in the 1990s, with emphasis on what seems to be 'restrained economic cooperation', coupled with low standard of joint trade and investment activity, especially after some Arab citizens have been asked, in the 1990s, to leave some Western and Central African states due to their 'inappropriate' investment activities in those countries. Other contentious cases are the Southern Sudan civil war, the Africans' fear of Islamic radicalism, relations between Israel and African states, and the Western Saharan conflict, toward all of which the views and the policies of the two regions are clearly conflicting. Chapter six discusses regional and international treaties on the Nile River and future of relations between the Nile Valley states. Since water shortages on the continent are likely to raise political and security tensions in the Nile valley region in the 2000s, the treaties between Britain and Italy in 1891, Britain and Imperial Ethiopia in 1906, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Egypt in 1929, and Sudan and Egypt in 1959, are considered in this study as possible legal precedents for any future conflict between these countries. This is especially true now that Egypt and Ethiopia have openly, for the first time, disagreed over the construction of irrigation dams along the Blue Nile. On the other hand, the dispute over the digging of Jonglei canal in Southern Sudan, interrupted in the 1980s by the ongoing civil war, may well lead to an open conflict between Egypt and Southern Sudan in the future, as already some Southern Sudanese intellectuals have expressed their open opposition to the resumption of the digging of thecanal. Chapter seven deals with the negligible role of the OAU in solving the problems of African refugees in the continent. In this chapter, I argue that the OAU has distanced itself from dealing with the refugees crises in the region, leaving these refugees and their problems at the mercy of the UNHCR and NGO officials, some of whom turned some refugee camps into trading centers for their financial gain. A practical step toward solving this acute problem would be the revival of the active role formerly played by the OAU Refugee Department, transforming it into an active participant -a watch dog - in solving refugee -related problems, whether in terms of the peace-making process or of relief work, in close cooperation with UN agencies and NGOs operating in the region. Chapter eight is a survey of the effects of 'globalization' or the 'Clash of Civilizations' on Africa in the 21st century. In this chapter, I try to explain the socio-economic and political dynamics of globalization as framed by American and European theoreticians, and evaluate its imminent impact on the political and economic decision-making process in Africa in the 21st century. Here the role of religion and politics, the globalization of the world economy, and the West's cultural domination of most aspects of inter-cultural exchange are explored. The possibility of the world becoming a multi-polar platform with the active participation of Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, is emphasized. The role of Africa in the emerging world order, is the question left forAfrican leaders to answer. The last chapter, entitled 'Africa: Fear of the Future', examines African socio-economic and political life as it stands today, with emphasis on what the future may hold for it in the 21st century. In this section, I argue that civil and tribal wars may well carry on to the middle of the 21st century, so long as power struggles between African politicians remain the supreme goal of their politics. Border disputes between African states may also pose a real problem in the same way that the questions of self-determination, Islam versus Christianity, the hidden rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in West and East Africa and organized tribal or religious terrorism, will all dominate the political agendas of the continent in the 21st century. Unless the continent's emerging regional economic blocs are strengthened and institutionalized, it is unlikely that the badly needed political and economic reforms in the continent, which must be self-generated and self-regulated, will be carried out successfully. The book was published in Beirut, Lebanon in November 1998 (143 pages), and you can purchase it through your local bookstore from the following addresses: Mu'asesa al-Arabiyya Lil Darasat wa al-Nashr P O Box 11-5460 Beirut Lebanon Tel: 00961 1 807900 Fax: 807901 Dar al-Faris Lil Nashr wal Tawzia P O Box 9157 Amman Jordan Tel: 00962 6 5605432 Tel/Fax 5685501

Junub al-Sudan: Afaq wa Tahdiyyat (Southern Sudan: Prospects and Challenges) is an attempt to justify analytically the long-standing Southern demand for self-determination to the Arab world readers. The theme of the book is based on the principle of the right of Southern Sudanese to establish an independent state in Southern Sudan's Upper Nile, Bahr el-Ghazal and Equatoria regions (provinces) as they stood in January 1956. The book is addressed to the Arab World readers, particularly to the educated class and politicians. It is also addressed to the third and the fourth generations of the South who read and write Arabic. It attempts to approach the Southern Sudanese problem using different approach: using history as a starting point and not an aim by itself as the first and the second generations of Southern politicians used to address and propagate the problem. In this book the right to self-determination is based upon articles addressing it in the Asmara Agreement between the SPLM and the NDA in June 1995 and the Khartoum Peace Agreement between the GOS and the UDSF in April 1997. The book focuses on the premises that now that the North conceded to the right of Southerners to freely exercise their right to Self-determination on whether to secede or remain in a united Sudan, the next move would be to explore the prospects of the future of this emerging independent South Sudan entity. The book is about the future of the South. A thorough analysis of future relations between the South and the North, in various aspects after the secession of the South, is the focus of one of the chapters. Different contentious political, economic and social issues that might cause problems later on between the two states are explored and solutions are suggested. A major portion of the book is composed of several tens of questions, most of which are aimed at provoking critical thinking about the future of the state-to-be in the South. The book also raises controversial questions such: Who are Southerners and what are the elements that forms their socio-political identity? How do they express their identity? What are the common grounds that would make them a nation, and does the enmity they share towards the North forms the only common bond or interest among them? And what will become of their relations among themselves when the enemy is gone? In addition to several similar provocative, but important questions. Then a chapter on the challenges ahead of this state-to-be: Are Southerners ready for an independent state? Does the current behavior of their military and political leadership support the idea that Southerners are ready to welcome that state? Why is the Southern leadership pursuing a war which has already claimed a high human lost, at the time that all the indications seem suggest that the leadership is not ready in practical terms for the establishment of an independent state? Does the South have the technical and trained-manpower to run the emerging state? What are the economic and political potentials of this state-to-be? What will be the type of political system that will be adopted in that state? What are the solutions to the problem of nepotism., political tribalism and the practical means to fight the acute corruption of the military and political leadership in a free South? The book also devotes a whole chapter on the challenges that are awaiting the state in North Sudan after the South secedes. At the heart of the analysis is the eminent conflict between the conservative religious parties and the emerging liberal and secular 'marginalized' elite from the western and eastern parts of Sudan. The issue of unequal economic development between the central parts of the North and the other regions and the problem of the water shortages in these regions are some of the problems to face the Central Government in the Northern part of the country after the South secedes. What will be the effects of rivalry between Egypt and Libya about political influence over Northern Sudan on an independent South? This  is in addition to several other contentious issues raised in the book, all of which suggest that the North is in for a bitter political turmoil in future, unless the old ways of intentional marginalization of the peripheries and the policy of centralization of the national wealth and development in central parts of the North are abandoned as soon as the South go its way. The book also tries to explore the possibility of establishing a clear foreign policy of the state-to-be. The envisaged external policy should be based on the historical knowledge of ties and mutual interests of the following states and the South during and after the national struggle: Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zaire (DRC), Kenya, Libya, USA, France, Great Britain, in addition to China, Japan, India, Nigeria and South Africa. There is also a chapter dealing with the negative, and sometimes destructive role of some western, Christian and humanitarian NGOs that are currently operating in the South. There is a plan to translate the book into English in the near future. The book was published in Amman, Jordan in February 2000 (267 pages), and you can purchase it through your local bookstore from the following addresses: Al-Ahalia Lil Nashr wal Tawzia P O Box 7772 Amman Jordan Tel: 00962 6 4638688 Fax 4657445 Or Bissan Bookshop Beirut Lebanon Tel: 00961 1 747088 London, Britian Al-Saqi Bookshop Dar Al Hikma Paris, France Ibn Sina Bookshop Cairo, Egypt Dar Al Jil Madbuli Bookshop Damascus, Syria Al Nuri Bookshop Dar Al Madaa