Lakhdar Ghettas

Mohamed L Ghettas is a doctoral research student at the International History Department, where he is working on US-Algerian Relations 1969-81 under the supervision of Professor Arne Westad. Since obtaining his BA in English in 1997, he worked for multinational oil companies delivering specialist training to employees and acting as interpreter and translator. He successfully completed his MA in American History at the School of American Studies, University of East Anglia in 2006. He was awarded the Board of Examiners' Prize for his MA dissertation which dealt with US Policy Options with the Prospect of a Nuclear Iran. Mr. Ghettas speaks French, Arabic and the Berber dialect Tamazight. His main research interest and expertise areas include democratisation and governance in North Africa, geopolitics of energy security in the Mediterranean basin, as well as the geopolitics of the Sub-Saharan Sahel region. Mr. Ghettas is the Maghreb Affairs Initiative Coordinator within the Africa International Affairs Programme |at LSE IDEAS and is also a holder of the Stonex PhD Scholarship.

Areas of Expertise

• North Africa affairs and history 
• The geopolitics of energy in North Africa
• Political Islam in North Africa and the Middle East

Recent Publications

• "The Geopolitical Repercussions of the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution on North Africa", LSE IDEAS Situation Analysis SA008, January 2011
• "Western Sahara: No longer a low intensity frozen conflict", LSE IDEAS Situation Analysis, November 2010
• "The New Gold Rush in the Sahel", IDEAS Today, Issue 3, April 2010
• "Just What's Happening in Algeria?", LSE IDEAS Situation Analysis SA007, March 2010
• "Algiers-Paris: Crossing the Rubicon in the War of Colonial Legacies", Joint MAG, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung,  March 2010, pp.5-6

News

• Lakhdar Ghettas: What Next For Egypt?|
  Situation Analysis on the ongoing crisis in Egypt, the scent of the jasmine revolution?
• The Geopolitical Repercussions of the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution on North Africa
  Lakhdar Ghettas analyses the regional fallout from the weekend's events in Tunisia.
• Lakhdar Ghettas: Western Sahara: No longer a low intensity frozen conflict
  On the conflicting reports on the recent violent clashes between Moroccan forces and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (POLISARIO) in a protest camp near Laayoune, Sahara's main town.
• IDEAS Today - Issue 3: April 2010
  Refugees in Malaysia by Eva-Lotta Hedman, What Next for Iran? by George Lawson, Drifting or Rifting? America and Europe in the age of Obama by Gregorio Bettiza, New fuel for the Falklands dispute? by George Adelman, Extending Models of Diversity: Politics and Society in Trinidad and Tobago Leslie James, and more...
• Just What's Happening in Algeria?
  The assassination of the Algerian chief of national police Colonel Ali Tounsi coincides with the standoff between the Turkish Government and the military establishment. In Algeria, a conflict of similar colouring has been underway for several months.