Dalia Ghanem is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where her work examines political and extremist violence, radicalization, Islamism, and jihadism, with an emphasis on Algeria. She has written a 2018 paper on the Algerian regime’s ability to sustain itself without much reform, “Limiting Change Through Change: The Key to the Algerian Regime’s Longevity”, in which she examines the ruling elite’s tactics to manage public anger and dissent.
In February this year, the Algerian president dissolved parliament, and organized an elections on June 12. The vote proved controversial given the record low turnout, and after the country’s ruling party, the FLN which dominated Algerian politics since the 1962 independence, won most seats, although still short of a majority (105 seats out of 407). To discuss the results of June 12 election and the situation in Algeria in general, Diwan interviewed Ghanem in late June.
