Weapons of the weak, and of the strong

Mauritanian foreign policy and the international dimensions of social activism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3978712
AutoresFrancisco Freire (0000-0002-6653-8669, Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (CRIA)/ Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCSH), Lisbon, Portugal, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Páginas135-151
Fecha de publicación2020-12-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaForeign Policy in North Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003022312-7
OpenAlexW4230034679
ISBN9781003022312
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas22

This article examines the forms of interplay between the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the international standing recently gained by some of the country's socio-political activists. These different forms of political argumentation are affected by Mauritania's 'Islamic republic' label, which, adopted following independence in 1960, has been opportunistically used by the state and has become a double-edged sword when used to legitimate foreign and domestic policies. After discussing official expressions of foreign policy, the article moves on to examine the forms of social activism that have more recently questioned the country's social landscape. The article concludes that Mauritanian foreign policy is in clear relation with a recent shift in the social agenda that questions Mauritania's social structures, political apparatus and the state's formal designation as an Islamic republic

Argumentation theory · Foreign policy · Geography · Independence (probability theory · International relations · Islam · Islamic republic · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · The Republic · African history and culture analysis · African Studies and Geopolitics · Law · Political Conflict and Governance