The massacre of foreign tourists in the coastal resort of Sousse highlights the mismatch between perception and reality in Tunisia.
The journalist and author of The Meursault Investigation illuminates the way Algeria is torn between religious observance and the freedom of the individual.
The terrorist attack in Tunis highlights the challenges facing Tunisia's new government and underlines the need for western support in meeting them.
Algeria's efforts to resolve crises in Libya and Mali are informed by its longstanding experience of regional diplomacy.
The chaos in Libya will not be stopped by lazy rhetoric or easy options. The country's neighbours, Tunisia and Algeria, can teach the west a lesson.
The traumatic attacks in Paris provoked agonised public debate. But to be productive this needs to range more deeply through France's colonial history and modern society.
The probable election victory of Béji Caid Essebsi is a vital moment in the pioneer country of the Arab revolts. It also reveals the scale of Tunisia's economic challenges.
The political misuse and misreading of events involving Algerians in France are an obstacle to true understanding.
Algeria’s circles of power and their relationship to a complex society and history are hard to grasp. Francis Ghilès describes his own route to understanding the country in the post-independence era, when the heavy legacy of the past mixed with the confident idealism of the present.
Tunisia has turned a political corner. But great economic problems remain which require careful management and good government, says Francis Ghilès.
A career in journalism took Francis Ghilès to the heart of power in the post-independence states of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. He saw at first hand how the oil and natural-gas industries in Algeria fuelled state ambitions, political rivalries and dreams of open frontiers. In a rich personal ref
The evolution of Morocco under its monarchy makes it in many ways an exception to political trends elsewhere in the Maghreb, let alone the wider Arab world. In the latest of his series mixing personal reflection and political analysis, Francis Ghilès reflects on his years of reporting the country
