Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
Encyclopedia
Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou sometimes spelled Mohammad-Mahmoud Mohamedou (born 1968) is a Harvard University scholar and Mauritania
n diplomat and academic, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
from 2008 until 2009. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
in Geneva, and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy and is regarded as a leading international specialist on the new forms of transnational terrorism.
, Mauritania and studied in Spain, France, and the United States where he earned a PhD in Political Science at the City University of New York. In 1996, he was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University and in 1997 Research Associate at the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations in New York.
He was Director of Research at the International Council on Human Rights Policy, located in Geneva
, from 1998 to 2004, where he conducted research on national human rights institutions, journalism coverage of rights issues, and co-authored a report on the persistence and mutation of racism and economic exclusion.
From 2004 to 2008, Mohamedou was Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University
where he founded the Transnational and Non-State Armed Groups Project.
He was appointed as Ambassador and Director of Multilateral Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Mauritania in 2008, and subsequently Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He went back to academia in 2009.
He teaches political science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva since 2010, and is a Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.
Reviews of the book highlighted its innovative nature, "refreshing and rational" approach, and sharp language reminiscent of critical theorist Slavoj Žižek
. Columbia University's Mahmood Mamdani has noted that "Mohamedou provides a much-needed secular understanding of Al Qaeda. Unlike most writers, he insists on understanding the changing significance of Al Qaeda's discourse against a historical backdrop", while Emory University's Abdullahi An-Naim pointed out Mohamedou's "sober analysis" as "essential reading". One reviewer noted that: "[Mohamedou] has presented an entirely new perspective on the subject. This makes the book a must read, for scholars as well as students of international politics." Indeed, Mohamedou's insistence on treating Al Qaeda as a political rather than religious group has led to his characterization as "perhaps the first liberal to attempt a fully secular understanding of Al Qaeda".
Mohamedou is also the author of Iraq and the Second Gulf War: State-Building and Regime Security. Originally published in 1998 by Austin & Winfeld in San Francisco and reprinted in 2002, that book has been considered "a model for further studies on the Gulf War".
In French, Mohamedou wrote Contre-Croisade: Origines et Conséquences du 11 Septembre, an in-depth investigation of the events leading up to and after the September 11 attacks, which was published by l'Harmattan in Paris in 2004 and reissued in 2011 under the title Contre-Croisade: Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde. An Arabic version was published in 2010.
He has contributed chapters to other books, notably Violent Non-State Actors in Contemporary World Politics (Columbia University Press, 2010), Rethinking the Foreign Policies of the Global South – Seeking Conceptual Frameworks (Lynne Reinner, 2003), and Governance, and Democratization in the Middle East (Avebury Press, 1998).
Among his most influential works is a study on the mutation of the modern forms of war and the rise of transnational terrorism published by Harvard University in 2005 entitled "Non-Linearity of Engagement", from which an op-ed was derived and published in The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Updating Martin Van Creveld's 1991 "The Transformation of War" and Herfried Munkler's 2005 "The New Wars", Mohamedou's work has been hailed as one of the latter-day most insightful and detached scientific analysis of Al Qaeda, examining in particular the mechanics of its regionalization, franchising, away of what he termed a 'mother Al Qaeda' (Al Qaeda al Oum), and assessing the long-term impact of the new forms of terrorism and 'the militarization of Islamism'.
Mohamedou has also written on democratization issues in other media including Le Monde Le Monde Diplomatique; and Libération appeared on BBC World News, BBC2, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Voice of America, Radio France Internationale, France 2, France3, France 24 Deutsche Welle, VPRO, Swiss television, Swiss Radio, NECN and ABC News, and has been a a guest-blogger on "The Washington Note" writing on post-9/11 US policy and American society, and the Arab Spring. A regular public speaker, Mohamedou served on the advisory council of the Dart Center for Journalism and Adviser to the Small Arms Survey.
http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331676&
Review: http://www.terrorisme.net/p/article_228.shtml
http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=34482&razSqlClone=1
Review: http://oumma.com/Contre-croisade-le-11-Septembre-et
http://www.gcsp.ch/Resources-Publications/Publications/GCSP-Publications/Geneva-Papers/Research-Series/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Al-Qaeda-Lessons-in-Post-September-11-Transnational-Terrorism
http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Second-Gulf-Mohammad-Mahmoud-Mohamedou/dp/1572920963
Review: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a789931517&db=all
http://www.hpcrresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/Non-Linearity_of_Engagement.pdf
Reprinted and translated in A Contrario: http://www.hpcr.org/pdfs/guerre_non_lineaire.pdf
http://www.tagsproject.org/_data/global/images/Report_Empowered_Groups_Nov2007.pdf
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss20/mohamedou.pdf
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss18/cavallaro.pdf
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/08/looking-at-war-through-a-legal-lens/
http://graduateinstitute.ch/Jahia/site/iheid/cache/bypass/lang/en/institute/news;jsessionid=3E4CC91CA68E2976D421231EAC918938?newsId=113492
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer/article/2011/03/07/1489526.html
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/01012308572-les-visages-changeants-du-nouveau-terrorisme
http://www.terrorisme.net/p/article_231.shtml
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
n diplomat and academic, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
from 2008 until 2009. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is a highly selective postgraduate educational and research institute situated in Geneva, Switzerland...
in Geneva, and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy and is regarded as a leading international specialist on the new forms of transnational terrorism.
Academic and diplomatic career
Mohamedou was born in AtarAtar
Atar is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" ....
, Mauritania and studied in Spain, France, and the United States where he earned a PhD in Political Science at the City University of New York. In 1996, he was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University and in 1997 Research Associate at the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations in New York.
He was Director of Research at the International Council on Human Rights Policy, located in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, from 1998 to 2004, where he conducted research on national human rights institutions, journalism coverage of rights issues, and co-authored a report on the persistence and mutation of racism and economic exclusion.
From 2004 to 2008, Mohamedou was Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
where he founded the Transnational and Non-State Armed Groups Project.
He was appointed as Ambassador and Director of Multilateral Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Mauritania in 2008, and subsequently Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He went back to academia in 2009.
He teaches political science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva since 2010, and is a Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.
As an author
Mohamedou wrote an influential book on Al Qaeda entitled Understanding Al Qaeda: The Transformation of War which was published in 2006 in the United Kingdom by Pluto Press, and 2007 in the United States by the University of Pennsylvania Press. An expanded and revised version retitled Understanding Al Qaeda: Changing War and Global Politics was released in 2011.Reviews of the book highlighted its innovative nature, "refreshing and rational" approach, and sharp language reminiscent of critical theorist Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
. Columbia University's Mahmood Mamdani has noted that "Mohamedou provides a much-needed secular understanding of Al Qaeda. Unlike most writers, he insists on understanding the changing significance of Al Qaeda's discourse against a historical backdrop", while Emory University's Abdullahi An-Naim pointed out Mohamedou's "sober analysis" as "essential reading". One reviewer noted that: "[Mohamedou] has presented an entirely new perspective on the subject. This makes the book a must read, for scholars as well as students of international politics." Indeed, Mohamedou's insistence on treating Al Qaeda as a political rather than religious group has led to his characterization as "perhaps the first liberal to attempt a fully secular understanding of Al Qaeda".
Mohamedou is also the author of Iraq and the Second Gulf War: State-Building and Regime Security. Originally published in 1998 by Austin & Winfeld in San Francisco and reprinted in 2002, that book has been considered "a model for further studies on the Gulf War".
In French, Mohamedou wrote Contre-Croisade: Origines et Conséquences du 11 Septembre, an in-depth investigation of the events leading up to and after the September 11 attacks, which was published by l'Harmattan in Paris in 2004 and reissued in 2011 under the title Contre-Croisade: Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde. An Arabic version was published in 2010.
He has contributed chapters to other books, notably Violent Non-State Actors in Contemporary World Politics (Columbia University Press, 2010), Rethinking the Foreign Policies of the Global South – Seeking Conceptual Frameworks (Lynne Reinner, 2003), and Governance, and Democratization in the Middle East (Avebury Press, 1998).
Among his most influential works is a study on the mutation of the modern forms of war and the rise of transnational terrorism published by Harvard University in 2005 entitled "Non-Linearity of Engagement", from which an op-ed was derived and published in The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Updating Martin Van Creveld's 1991 "The Transformation of War" and Herfried Munkler's 2005 "The New Wars", Mohamedou's work has been hailed as one of the latter-day most insightful and detached scientific analysis of Al Qaeda, examining in particular the mechanics of its regionalization, franchising, away of what he termed a 'mother Al Qaeda' (Al Qaeda al Oum), and assessing the long-term impact of the new forms of terrorism and 'the militarization of Islamism'.
Mohamedou has also written on democratization issues in other media including Le Monde Le Monde Diplomatique; and Libération appeared on BBC World News, BBC2, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Voice of America, Radio France Internationale, France 2, France3, France 24 Deutsche Welle, VPRO, Swiss television, Swiss Radio, NECN and ABC News, and has been a a guest-blogger on "The Washington Note" writing on post-9/11 US policy and American society, and the Arab Spring. A regular public speaker, Mohamedou served on the advisory council of the Dart Center for Journalism and Adviser to the Small Arms Survey.
Notable works
- Understanding Al Qaeda: Changing War and Global Politics (Pluto Press, London 2011)
http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331676&
Review: http://www.terrorisme.net/p/article_228.shtml
- Contre-Croisade: Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde (L'Harmattan, Paris 2011)
http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=34482&razSqlClone=1
Review: http://oumma.com/Contre-croisade-le-11-Septembre-et
- The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda (2011)
http://www.gcsp.ch/Resources-Publications/Publications/GCSP-Publications/Geneva-Papers/Research-Series/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Al-Qaeda-Lessons-in-Post-September-11-Transnational-Terrorism
- Iraq and the Second Gulf War: State-Building and Regime Security (Austin and Winfeld, San Francisco 2002)
http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Second-Gulf-Mohammad-Mahmoud-Mohamedou/dp/1572920963
Review: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a789931517&db=all
- Non-Linearity of Engagement (Harvard University 2005)
http://www.hpcrresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/Non-Linearity_of_Engagement.pdf
Reprinted and translated in A Contrario: http://www.hpcr.org/pdfs/guerre_non_lineaire.pdf
- The Challenge of Transnational Non-State Armed Groups (Harvard University 2007)
http://www.tagsproject.org/_data/global/images/Report_Empowered_Groups_Nov2007.pdf
Other articles
- Harvard Human Rights Journal 20th anniversary special issue
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss20/mohamedou.pdf
- Harvard Human Rights Journal
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss18/cavallaro.pdf
- Harvard Gazette
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/08/looking-at-war-through-a-legal-lens/
- The Muslim Word
http://graduateinstitute.ch/Jahia/site/iheid/cache/bypass/lang/en/institute/news;jsessionid=3E4CC91CA68E2976D421231EAC918938?newsId=113492
- Le Monde
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer/article/2011/03/07/1489526.html
- Libération
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/01012308572-les-visages-changeants-du-nouveau-terrorisme
- Terrorism.net
http://www.terrorisme.net/p/article_231.shtml