Beyond terrorism calculus

By African Bulletin on March 22, 2010

Algiers hosted a regional conference about cooperation in combating terrorism and other transnational crimes, but Morocco didn’t participate, despite its will. This shows once more that the political clock between Morocco and Algeria is still frozen, and how sensitive bilateral relations can be.

If we consider the geographical positions of the countries and the logic of participation or not, anyone can conclude to the non sense of this exclusion, but also to the rejection of some milestones of counter-terrorism which are consultation and cooperation of the countries affected or potentially exposed to terrorism. African nations bordering the Sahara desert are Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, and Niger; but Algiers has its own geographical standards.
Fundamentalist terrorism is taking roots in the region and Al Qaeda is projecting to transform this space as a spearhead of its main hub in the sub-region. It is a fact widely acknowledged that every country had or still experiences acts and desolations of terrorism attacks.
Yesterday, Morocco and Algeria cooperated to fight terrorism.  In 2000, both authorities neutralized two Islamist groups that were supporting each other across the border (Sonnet, 2000).  One journalist ironically referred to that event as “The reconciliation of Morocco and Algeria at the expenses of Islamists.” This incident shows the extent to which “cooperation between the two countries can be efficient and the common security interest they have in fighting this intangible enemy”
Unfortunately, the Algerian civil-military caste has not yet reached the maturity to shift from “a donor of lessons and a master of experience”, to only   one good player of the team. Time is running and perhaps the needed temperature is not yet there to unfreeze the political clock… May be the reasons and goals are not within terrorism, but elsewhere.