Jeffrey James Byrne - Mecca of Revolution (Oxford Studies in International History)

OXFORD STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY

JAMES J. SHEEHAN, SERIES ADVISOR

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Gordian Knot

Apartheid and the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order

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The Global Offensive

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PAUL THOMAS CHAMBERLIN

Mecca of Revolution

Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order

JEFFREY JAMES BYRNE

JEFFREY JAMES BYRNE

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Oxford University Press 2016

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Byrne, Jeffrey James, author.

Mecca of revolution : Algeria, decolonization, and the Third World order / Jeffrey James Byrne.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780199899142 (hardcover : alk. paper) eISBN 9780190498962

1.AlgeriaHistoryRevolution, 19541962.2.AlgeriaHistoryAutonomy and

independence movements.3.Jabhat al-Tahrir al-QawmiHistory.4.AlgeriaPolitics

and government.5.AlgeriaForeign relations.I.Title.

DT295.B96 2016

962.046dc23

2015035929

For my parentsand a dream in the void

When asked how he went bankrupt, a character in Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises replies, Two ways: gradually, then suddenly. I wrote this book in similar fashion. I have left a trail of gratitude across space and time, from the impecunious early days to the thrilling denouement, from Algiers all the way to Vancouver.

First of all, it would have been impossible for me to pursue my research in various locations without the help of others. In London, I am grateful to Tiha Franulovic for all sorts of logistical and bureaucratic support, and also to all the staff and inhabitants of the Ideas Centre at London School of Economics (LSE), formerly the Cold War Studies Centre. No less important, my brother picked up the tab for morale-boosting evenings on countless occasions. Svetozar Rajak, of the LSE Ideas Centre, additionally provided invaluable assistance that enabled my research in the Serbian and former Yugoslavian archives, as did Jovan avoki. Vladimir Unkovski-Korica was a genial guide through Belgrades nightlife. In Paris, I am very grateful to the Tilquins and to the Frankels for their boundless hospitality. My sincere thanks also to Anne Liskenne, conservateur en chef du Patrimoine at the archives of the French foreign ministry, for the benefit of her expertise and generously granting access to Algeria-related material that was still in the process of classification. Terah Maher provided hospitality and entertainment in Boston, as did the Blevinses and Fuvarskies in Washington DC.

In Algiers, I will always cherish the support, hospitality, and camaraderie afforded to me by Pre Thierry Becker and the other residents of Les Glycines. I benefited in particular from Clement Hervs keen sense of the mot juste in multiple languages. Down the road in Oran, Bob Parks and Karim Ouaras of the Centre d'Etudes Maghrbines en Algrie provided vital logistical support, as did Krimat Abderrahmane back in the capital. I am also grateful to Daho Djerbal of NAQD and Fouad Soufi, now of CRASC, for their time and advice. My research in Algiers would simply not have been successful without the help, insight, and advice generously granted to me by Ryme Seferdjeli, Aissa Seferdjeli, Ahmed Ladi, Nourredine Djoudi, and Slimane Shikh. Furthermore, Mecca of Revolution would have been profoundly different (and less fulfilling for me) were it not for the cooperation, support, and patience granted to me by the direction and staff of the Archives Nationales dAlgrie.

During the graduate studies that produced the first draft of this book, Melvyn P. Leffler, Odd Arne Westad, and the Harry S. Truman Library granted me an invaluable intellectual opportunity and financial support through the Cambridge History of the Cold War project. I also received financial support from the John F. Kennedy Library, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. A multiyear grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made it possible for me to achieve my research goals, pursue new directions, and share my work.

My intellectual debts are almost impossible to catalogue. First and foremost, however, this book is a testament to the mentorship of Odd Arne Westad, my thesis supervisor at the LSE and an irreplaceable source of guidance ever since. He is as great a teacher as he is a scholar, always pushing his students to pursue their inquiries to the end, wherever the destination. As befits a supporter of Arsenal FC, he never lost faith in the face of inconsistent performances. Astute readers will likely detect Arnes influence in all the books good bits and regret its absence elsewhere.

I am also grateful to Matt Connelly who has been a generous source of both practical and intellectual support over the years. Although his Diplomatic Revolution bestrides the field of Algerian international history like a colossus, he has always been commendably open to competing interpretations and willing to share his own research. James McDougall and Fawaz Gerges were wonderful examiners for my viva at LSE: this exam was a very rewarding experience, and their extensive reports and comments on the doctoral thesis exemplified how that process can guide the creation of a first monograph. Likewise, I offer my thanks to the anonymous readers selected by Oxford University Press for their considered and constructive feedback and to Vijay Prashad, Bob Vitalis, Julia Clancy-Smith, and Matt Connelly for reading and commenting on the manuscript before publication.

I am equally grateful to Paul Kennedy and John Gaddis, directors of International Security Studies at Yale, for bringing me into their fecund intellectual community. My time at ISS was crucial not only to this particular projects development but, more importantly, also to my growth as a scholar in the purest sense. In addition to being associate director of ISS during this time, Ryan Irwin has been a perennial intellectual companion at conferences and seminars.