Algeria's Role in the African Sahel: Toward a New Security Paradigm

Abstract

This paper investigates the Algerian role in the Sahel region. Traditionally, Algeria has always been a key broker of stability in the African Sahel, which continues to face crucial challenges and significant threats. As a regional power, Algeria has interests in the Sahel owing to geographical contiguity, strategic depth and historical ties. Consequently, Algeria's renewed interest in sub-Saharan Africa is driven to a large extent by the growth of regional terrorism, and the collapse of the Malian State in 2012, followed by the French military intervention in Mali in 2013. As such, Algeria insists on maintaining an autonomous approach in engineering its security strategy in the region. As part of its security approach, Algeria seeks to prioritise political and diplomatic mechanisms over those of the military in order to manage risks within a framework that combines securitization and humanization. This paper takes a role theory lens to examine Algeria as a middle power, one that transcends the logic based on material capabilities and tangible resources.