Zawaya

Morocco's efforts and experience useful in current security and political circumstances

By: Jemal Mohamed Oumar

There is much talk these days about Morocco’s potential role in furthering the stability and security of the Sahel, following the occurrence of several local and regional changes that gave rise to global changes. Generally, this requires a lot of countries to change their domestic and foreign policies in order to adapt to the new situation that will certainly affect their political future and security.

The Sahel region has to confront the dangers of terrorism which knows no borders, and witness violent social turmoil in Maghreb societies. Consequently, the concerned countries had to review their plans in accordance with this agenda, hence the need to involve Morocco in the upcoming regional Sahel security meeting to be held in Algeria. Morocco is a vital actor, and its exclusion from the previous Sahel meetings was a security vulnerability in the region. Therefore, it has become necessary to include this country in coordination and consultation especially that the Sahel now includes Burkina Faso and Nigeria, and that both Libya and Tunisia will be present.

We can understand Morocco’s possible role in the next regional meeting based on the facts below.

The Moroccan-Algerian political openness noticed recently in the statements made by officials of both countries, and in the significant shift in their diplomatic policies. This may lead to resolving the issue of the Western Sahara, after the abduction of Spanish and Italian nationals in the last two months.

The growing security concerns in the Sahel and the Maghreb consist of AQIM’s threats, and the implications of the Libyan revolution that led to the proliferation of arms smuggling and trade, illegal immigration and drugs smuggling. These are the main factors prompting Sahel leaders – and Algeria in particular – to think about Morocco’s role in the security field.

The political implications of the Arab revolutions include the rise of the Islamist tide in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and probably Algeria in the foreseeable future. These implications might push the leaders of Maghreb countries, including Morocco and Algeria, to coordinate together in order to face this Islamist tide – even if the latter may unite people more, thus bypassing relations at the top of the political pyramid -, and cooperate on the economic level.

According to its new security policy, Algeria will no longer ban military interventions in neighboring countries to fight terrorism and ensure security coordination. This flexibility towards neighbors is dictated by the current circumstances and might lead to more openness to Morocco.

Morocco has faced many terrorism-related security challenges, and has experience in fighting terrorism that might be of interest to Sahel countries.