North Africa’s Worsening Divisions

Arezki Daoud (The North Africa Journal)—When going through the news originating from North Africa, day in and day out, it is difficult to ignore the stories that emphasize the deepening divisions between the region’s nations. Surely the economies of the Maghreb are making substantial improvements, but progress in regional politics aimed at infusing understanding and improving relations has essentially stalled and is instead moving backward.

Setting the Western Sahara conflict aside, North African governments have done virtually nothing to insure progress in intra-Maghreb relations and recent events suggest that achieving understanding is on no one’s agenda, even long term.

Weeks after Algeria announced a planned spending spree on defense with major Russian contracts; rumors in Europe speak of Morocco planning to beef up its air defenses. Nothing wrong with that, as it is also a legitimate sovereign decision, except the timing may not be so coincidental, after all.

Although denied by the French defense company Dassault, the rumor in itself is revealing about the atmosphere of suspicion that is so widespread in the region and the state of competition that exists between the nations, with the ultimate goal is to show who the dominant player in the Southern Mediterranean rim is. Another disturbing point in the story is that Morocco would actually pay for the 18 Rafale combat aircrafts with Saudi money. Another question to ponder is how much power do the Arab royalties have in North African capitals?

Signs of mistrust are everywhere in the region. Libya and Algeria are particularly unhappy with each others’ position on regional and African affairs. While Libya has been expanding its African policies, largely to compensate for its failure to rally the Arab world under a single nationalist banner, it has been encroaching lately in territories Algeria feels it has the first right of intervention. This is particularly the case in the reignited Touareg rebellion in Mali where both Tripoli and Algiers hope to be the “neutral” mediator, a position that would show them as a major regional player. Tripoli’s intervention in the conflict is part of its efforts to position itself as the regional power in the Sahel region and with an economically and militarily strengthening Algeria, competition for the Sahel is likely to create more divisions with no one truly benefiting from it at the end.

Global and regional powers are paying attention to these divisions. While in almost all cases their diplomats call for the strengthening of security in the region through partnership and cooperation, their defense companies manage to sell billions of dollars of military hardware. Russia has been particularly aggressive and after dealing with Algeria, Vladmir Putin is now preparing to go to Morocco, with a defense deal no doubt in his mind. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. One should now expect the French, the Americans and other Europeans to contribute to the arms race.

Competition is a good thing in business. When countries compete to attract foreign investors or a qualified workforce, it is fine. When countries compete to show who has the mosque with the tallest minaret, as it is happening today, that’s plain wrong. That’s what North Africans are doing today. Channeling their resources in areas that create a false sense of splendor and greatness when in fact, critical economic and social indicators need major attention.

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