Whither Algeria? Two normalizations, three unresolved crises and two crucial unknowns

Whither Algeria? This question, already posed in the title of a book by Mohamed Boudiaf published in 1992, remains unresolved twenty years later. Boudiaf, ¹ a charismatic figure from the War of Independence, was murdered shortly after being appointed as President of the High State Council (i.e. Head of State). As analysts, we are faced with the same predicament as Sisyphus; confronted by identical unresolved factors year after year – the same unknowns, the same parameters of instability, the same unresolved structural challenges and the same stagnation. ²