Generals Can’t Fix What Ails North Africa
Badly needed economic reforms will only succeed with democratic support.
Generals need not apply.
Photographer: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images
Half a century since juntas were the rage, generals in the three largest North African countries are trying to bring them back into fashion. In Algeria and Sudan, where popular protests have recently toppled long-reigning tyrants, military cabals are re-emerging from the shadows to bid for power. In Libya, eight unstable years since the fall of a dictator, another aspiring caudillo is trying to seize control by force of arms.
The generals—Sudan’s Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, Algeria’s Ahmed Gaid Salah and Libya’s Khalifa Haftar—should be careful what they wish for. The economic and political challenges that would come with success are monumental, and cannot be solved by military dictatorships. If they won’t get out of their people’s way because that is the right thing to do, they might consider that it is in their own interest to escape the burden of rule.