The resurgence of algeria's foreign policy in the twenty-first century

The resurgence of algeria’s foreign policy in the twenty-first century

Yahia H. Zoubir examines how Algeria’s foreign policy revived under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who came to power in 1999, after a decade of isolation that followed the cancelled elections of 1992. He presents this revival as a response both to the domestic crisis and to Algeria’s rivalry with Morocco. His evidence includes Algeria’s hosting of the 1999 OAU summit, its mediation of the Ethiopia-Eritrea ceasefire, its role in launching NEPAD, a thaw with France, the EU association agreement and closer security and trade ties with the United States after 11 September 2001.

Zoubir calls the Western Sahara conflict the main obstacle to integration in the Maghreb. Morocco suspended its participation in the Arab Maghreb Union in 1995, and a summit planned for June 2002 was cancelled over the issue. He criticises the UN, France and the United States for backing a “third way” of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty instead of the self-determination referendum Algeria supports, and he describes James Baker’s 2003 plan, which Algeria and Polisario accepted and Morocco rejected.

He concludes that Algeria’s diplomatic gains had not yet brought the foreign investment it needed, because of slow economic reform, corruption and tension between the presidency and the military.

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