How will Algeria reinvent Itself ?

Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 74

Algeria will have to reinvent itself to meet the challenges it will face on the departure from the scene of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who has ruled Africa’s largest country since 1999. The country sees itself as a regional powerhouse in the Maghreb but also in the broader Arab, African and developing worlds. This attitude has not changed since its hard won independence from France half a century ago. A former head of France’s external security (DGSE) calls Algeria “the key to the future stability of North West Africa and the Western Mediterranean”. Yet, despite the unprecedented turmoil surrounding it since the Arab Spring, it has been reluctant to flex its muscle. Political leaders in the US, Europe and the Arab world are conscious of the need to engage the country. They are frustrated by what they see as its lack of vision and willingness to engage more fully with foreign partners. President Bouteflika’s attempts to reinvigorate his country’s foreign policy after he came to power in 1999, following eight years of international isolation, have paid off. Yet Algerian views today command less attention than before. In the 1970s President Houari Boumediene was a key player in the Non Aligned Movement. In the early 1980s President Chadli Bendjedid helped secure the release of the US hostages held in Tehran.

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