Governance Barriers to Renewable Energy in North Africa

Solar power in the North African region has the potential to provide electricity for local energy needs and export to Europe. Nevertheless, despite the technical feasibility of solar energy projects, stakeholders still perceive projects in the region as risky because of existing governance issues. Certain areas of solar projects, such as construction, operation and management, are the most prone to governance risks, including lack of transparency and accountability, perceived as barriers for deployment of the projects. It is likely that large-scale foreign direct investment into solar energy will not eliminate existing risks, but might even increase them. Furthermore, the recent political changes in the region have addressed some governance risks but not all of them, especially bureaucratic corruption. Stakeholders recommend a broad set of measures to facilitate development of solar projects in the region, ranging from auditing of individual projects to simplification and unification of bureaucratic procedures.     

RESEARCH NOTE: OBSERVATIONS OF SUICIDAL TERRORISTS IN ACTION

11 September woke the world up to the scourge of the twenty-first century—suicidal terrorism. Hostage-taking coupled with suicidal terrorism is its newest variant, played out in a Moscow theater in late October 2002. Forty Chechen terrorists armed with automatic rifles, grenades and self-detonating bombs announced to 800 plus hostages that the event was a suicide mission. The standoff ended when Russian Special Forces gassed and stormed the building, killing all the terrorists. Suicidal terrorists are rarely, if ever, observed in action. In the first months after the event, an American psychologist collaborated with Russian Academy of Sciences colleagues to collect interviews from the hostages. This article reports on hostages’ observations, interactions and conversations with the 40 suicidal terrorists.