Quick Facts
Born:
January 1, 1934, Algeria (age 91)
Title / Office:
foreign minister (1991-1993), Algeria
Political Affiliation:
National Liberation Front

Lakhdar Brahimi (born January 1, 1934, Algeria) is an Algerian diplomat whose lengthy career included peacemaking efforts in Lebanon, South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

Brahimi was educated in both France and his native Algeria (which was under French rule at the time of his birth). During Algeria’s struggle for independence from France in the late 1950s and early ’60s, he was a representative of the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale), the group that led the liberation struggle, in Southeast Asia. Continuing in his diplomatic role through the 1970s, he represented independent Algeria in Egypt, Sudan, and the United Kingdom and to the Arab League. He served in the Algerian government as presidential adviser (1982–84) and then served as under-secretary-general (1984–91) of the Arab League before returning to the Algerian government as foreign minister (1991–93).

In 1992 Brahimi was a rapporteur at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). He subsequently headed UN missions to South Africa (1993–94) and Haiti (1994–96) before being appointed to represent the UN in Afghanistan in 1997. Frustrated with the inability to resolve the conflict between the Taliban and other factions in Afghanistan, he resigned from his post in 1999. In 2000 he was lauded for his Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations (commonly known as the Brahimi Report), which recommended broad changes to the way UN peacekeeping missions were conceived and implemented. The report was critical in particular of UN inaction in both Rwanda in 1994, when long-running tensions between that country’s two major ethnic groups—the Hutu and the Tutsi—led to a genocide in which more than 800,000 civilians (primarily Tutsi) were killed, and Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1995, when at least 7,000 Bosniaks (Muslims) were massacred by Bosnian Serbs. Brahimi again served in Afghanistan (2001–04), this time to lead UN reconstruction efforts following the U.S.-led mission that toppled the Taliban regime there in 2001. In 2002 he was honoured by Harvard University Law School with its annual Great Negotiator Award.

Brahimi was appointed special adviser to the secretary-general of the UN in January 2004. In May the UN sent Brahimi to Iraq to help that country recover from the U.S. invasion of 2003 (see Iraq War). He was charged with aiding in the effort to restore Iraqi independence, which hinged on the country’s first democratic elections, scheduled for early 2005. Keeping in mind Iraq’s ethnic and religious diversity, Brahimi helped build a transitional government, forming a National Assembly of 100 members and overseeing the June 2004 implementation of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the selection of Ayād ʿAllāwī as interim Iraqi prime minister. After his departure from Iraq at the end of June, he indicated his impression that the U.S. invasion in 2003 had caused more problems than it had solved. He retired from his position as special adviser at the end of 2005. In August 2012 Brahimi was appointed the UN’s special envoy to Syria. He replaced Kofi Annan, who had resigned after failing to broker a cease-fire in the Syrian Civil War during his six-month tenure. Brahimi was also unable to negotiate a peace deal, and he left the post in 2014.

Brahimi was a member of the Elders, a group of international leaders established in the early 21st century to promote peaceful conflict resolution throughout the world.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.

National Liberation Front

political party, Algeria
Also known as: FLN, Front de Libération Nationale, Front of National Liberation
Quick Facts
French:
Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
Date:
March 1954 - present
Areas Of Involvement:
national liberation movement

National Liberation Front, the only constitutionally legal party in Algeria from 1962 to 1989. The party was a continuation of the revolutionary body that directed the Algerian war of independence against France (1954–62).

The FLN was created by the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (Comité Révolutionnaire d’Unité et d’Action [CRUA]), a group of young Algerian militants, organized in March 1954. The CRUA sought to reconcile the warring factions of the nationalist movement and to wage war against the French colonial presence in Algeria. By the middle of 1956 almost all the Algerian nationalist organizations had joined the FLN, which was then reorganized so that it resembled a provisional government, including a five-member executive body and a legislative body, which consisted of all the district heads.

During the Algerian war for independence, the National Liberation Army (Armée de Libération Nationale [ALN]), under the command of Col. Houari Boumedienne, acted as the military arm of the FLN. From camps stationed behind Tunisian and Moroccan borders, the ALN’s external contingent provided logistical support and weaponry to ALN forces within the country. The war for independence continued until March 18, 1962, when the French at last signed a cease-fire agreement with the FLN at Évian-les-Bains and made provisions for future economic and social cooperation. In a referendum held July 1, 1962, the Algerians voted overwhelmingly for self-determination and approved the Évian Agreement.

The proclamation of Algerian independence on July 3, 1962, was immediately followed by a power struggle within the FLN. The Political Bureau of the FLN was created in July 1962 by Ahmed Ben Bella, Boumedienne, and Muhammad Khidr in opposition to Belkacem Krim. It attracted a broad popular following through its socialist-Islamic ideology and effective propagandizing, enabling Ben Bella to become premier in May 1963. In 1965 Ben Bella was overthrown by Boumedienne, who held tight control of the leadership of the party and government until his death in December 1978; during his rule (1965–78), the FLN party functioned mainly as an ideological apparatus, while power effectively rested in the hands of Boumedienne himself and his Council of Revolution.

Despite the convening of various congresses throughout the 1980s, the role of the FLN was not significantly increased under the presidency of Col. Chadli Bendjedid. A new constitution approved in February 1989 eliminated both the country’s socialist ideology and its one-party political system, in effect signaling the further decline of the FLN (see Algeria: Bendjedid’s move toward democracy). A number of parties subsequently emerged, several of which—including the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut [FIS]), Front of Socialist Forces (Front des Forces Socialistes [FFS]), and Hamas—soon challenged the FLN.

The FLN lost greater presence in the midst of the political turmoil and violence of the 1990s as the National Democratic Rally (Rassemblement National Démocratique), formed in 1997, took a leading role. In the early 21st century, however, despite a number of internal crises, a revived FLN performed well in parliamentary and regional elections. In addition, the election of FLN member Abdelaziz Bouteflika to the country’s presidency in 1999, as well as his subsequent appointment to the largely honorary position as head of the FLN in 2005, both laid the foundation for closer links between the party and the presidency.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Laura Etheredge.