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Algeria
Security Problems with Neighboring States
In his efforts to shape a more pragmatic foreign policy, Benjedid
succeeded in moderating the stresses in the country's relationships
with the West. Concurrently, Algeria's concerns shifted to improving
regional stability, which had been disturbed by festering disputes
with Morocco and Libya. Reflective of improving relationships
was the formation in February 1989 of the Union of the Arab Maghrib
(Union du Maghreb Arabe--UMA), with Algeria, Libya, Mauritania,
Morocco, and Tunisia as members. The primary goal of the UMA was
improved economic cohesion, but the treaty also contained important
security clauses. The signatories affirmed that any aggression
against one member would be considered as aggression against the
other member states. In an apparent allusion to the Western Sahara
conflict, member states pledged not to permit any activity or
organization on their territory that could endanger the security
or territorial integrity of another member state.
Relations between Algeria and Morocco had long been characterized
by rivalry and occasional hostility. Immediately after Algerian
independence, Morocco laid claim to stretches of southern and
western Algeria that had been under Moroccan sovereignty before
the French gained control over the area in the nineteenth century.
In a series of sharp engagements in the disputed territory in
October 1963, the professional Moroccan army consistently outperformed
Algerian regulars and local guerrillas. Although OAU-sponsored
mediation ended the fighting, the success of the Moroccans demonstrated
the potential threat to Algerian security in the event of a more
serious dispute.
In addition to fighting over borders, the two countries each
sought primacy in the Maghrib. Their claims were rooted in part
in ideology: Morocco's claim to regional leadership derived from
its centuries-old national identity, whereas Algeria's stemmed
from the prestige of winning its War of Independence. The ideological
differences between the new socialist republic and the ancient
kingdom were sharpened when, almost immediately after independence,
Ben Bella began to trumpet his country's socialistrevolutionary
doctrines and its opposition to conservative governments such
as Morocco's. Relations improved after Boumediene came to power
and as both countries concentrated on their domestic problems.
In 1972 a treaty was signed defining the international border
between them. The Moroccan government, however, deferred its official
ratification of the treaty. Following the mending of differences
over the Western Sahara question, Morocco's King Hassan II finally
ratified the border treaty in May 1989.
The dispute over the Western Sahara had its origins in 1974 when
Morocco began maneuvering to annex the territory, which was then
under Spanish control and known as the Spanish Sahara. A series
of Moroccan diplomatic initiatives--climaxed by a march of 350,000
Moroccans across the territory's northern border-- resulted in
a treaty by which Spain turned over the northern twothirds of
the Western Sahara to Moroccan administration and the rest to
Mauritania (see Foreign
Policy; Africa
, ch. 4). By mid1975 the Algerians were giving supplies, vehicles,
and light arms to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia
el Hamra and Río de Oro (Frente Popular para la Liberación de
Saguia el Hamra y Río de Oro--Polisario). Polisario was the strongest
of several indigenous national liberation movements active in
the Western Sahara. Algerian authorities established refugee camps
in the Tindouf area to house large numbers of Saharans, popularly
known as Sahrawis, who abandoned the territory after the Moroccan
takeover. Algeria thus became the principal foreign supporter
of the Polisario in its long-running desert war to oppose Moroccan
control of the disputed area.
Algeria gradually acquired a quantitative military superiority
over Morocco with the introduction of large amounts of modern
weaponry, mainly from the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the Algerians
avoided direct confrontation with the more experienced Moroccan
troops. In January 1976, however, the Moroccans badly defeated
two battalions of Algerian troops and took prisoners in clashes
inside the Western Sahara. After that time, Algerian regulars
did not venture into the Western Sahara despite Moroccan claims
to the contrary. For their part, the Moroccans refrained from
pursuing troops onto Algerian territory.
Initially, fighting in the Western Sahara featured attacks by
the Polisario's light mobile forces against isolated Moroccan
outposts. By 1982, however, the struggle had shifted in Morocco's
favor. Morocco adopted a strategy of constructing fortified sand
walls, mined and equipped with electronic warning systems. Enclosing
progressively larger areas of the Sahara, Morocco was able to
undercut Polisario's ability to conduct hit-and-run attacks. The
Moroccan military dominated the battlefield, effectively coordinating
its modern ground and air firepower in spite of Algeria's deliveries
of increasingly sophisticated arms to the Polisario guerrillas.
The success of Morocco's military strategy was one factor in
the rapprochement between the two nations in 1988, following a
twelve-year hiatus in diplomatic relations precipitated by Algeria's
recognition of the Polisario government. Although Polisario was
able to mount an offensive against the sand wall in late 1989,
breaking a truce that had held for nearly a year, Algeria--preoccupied
by its own internal security problems--was no longer willing to
devote enough arms and support to keep the independence movement
alive. Algeria still provided refuge on its territory for about
10,000 guerrillas, but by the close of 1992 Polisario's military
defeats had nearly ended the insurgency.
Algeria's resumption of diplomatic relations with Morocco, accompanied
by the opening of borders and a number of joint economic initiatives,
eased the security situation on its western flank. Morocco's acceptance
of the United Nations (UN) peace plan for the Western Sahara and
the conclusion of the UMA treaty in 1989 further helped to abate
remaining tensions.
Whereas Morocco had long been viewed as a potential threat, Muammar
al Qadhafi's Libya was regarded as somewhat more friendly. The
Algerian-Libyan security relationship was based on a common antipathy
for the Western-dominated economic order and deep hostility toward
Israel. This relationship, however, suffered several setbacks
during the 1980s. In 1984 Morocco and Libya announced that they
had secretly negotiated an alliance. Although the alliance's effect
was short-lived, Algeria interpreted the agreement as upsetting
the strategic balance in the Maghrib. Libya's unilateral annexation
of a section of neighboring Chad and its military intervention
in Chad hardened Algerian attitudes toward Libya, as did the suspicion
that Libya was linked to unrest instigated by Islamist (also seen
as fundamentalist) groups in Algeria. Libya's subsequent participation
in the UMA, however, appeared to lay a foundation for more stable
relationships with Algeria and the other states of the region.
Data as of December 1993
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