NATO, Maghreb and Europe

Abstract

The security climate in the Mediterranean has changed. In less than one decade, the region has moved from mutual distrust and a discourse of threats to dialogue and security cooperation. The events of 11 September have accelerated the cooperation dynamic between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Europe, on the one hand, and the Maghreb states on the other. However, the current regional initiatives appear to be unable to impact decisively on the unresolved conflicts in the region and/or to prevent tensions. In this contribution, I analyse these initiatives and highlight their main shortcomings, while paying particularly attention to NATO's Mediterranean dialogue, the most important of these security frameworks. In this context, I investigate US initiatives in the Maghreb and the delicate balancing act that these perform in relation to Morocco and Algeria. I also examine the Maghreb states’ approaches to the NATO dialogue and the idea of a Maghreb security system, which is currently undermined by the prevailing ‘self-help’ approaches to security. Finally, I analyse the detrimental impact of the multiplication of partnerships for the establishment of comprehensive regional structure, as well as the drawbacks of a process of excessive securitization of the ‘soft’ security challenge in the Mediterranean.