Setting Priorities: Algeria’s Foreign Policy and Opportunities for Moscow

... of all, activities in the Sahara-Sahel zone, considered as a direct extension of the Maghreb. In this area, Algeria’s policy seems somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, the Sahel is perceived as a source of potential threats. On the other hand, the Sahel is perceived as a space for the realization of Algerian leadership ambitions, in which it competes with Morocco, among others. Deprived of space for such rivalry within the Maghreb itself, these two nations have long been forced to transfer it to the Sahel, thus “drawing” the latter as it were into the orbit of the Maghreb sub-region. In the meantime,...