Author Description

This is the eighteenth volume in a series that provides a continuing up-to-date reference work recording the rapidly changing events in an exceptionally complex part of the world. The volume includes for the first time separate country surveys of the North African states of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.On the whole, 1994 was characterized by continuity rather than major changes, with tension between governments and religious or ethnic opposition groups still dominating the political climate, most notably in Algeria, Egypt, and Iraq. As before, it was in the Arab-Israeli arena that the most important changes took place. The 1993 Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the PLO, and their May 1994 implementation agreement, paved the way for the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty, signed in October 1994, and prompted a process of political and economic dialogue between Israel and a number of formerly hostile Arab states. The Israeli-PLO agreements also gave birth to the autonomous Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip and Jericho, widely viewed as a major step toward a possible settlement of their historic conflict.