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Francis Ghilès is Associate Research Fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. During 18 years writing for the Financial Times he specialized in security, energy and political trends in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. He has freelanced for Le Monde, The New York Times and El Pais and contributes regularly to the BBC World Service.
Algeria today possesses a number of assets that endow it with the potential to be a regional power and to serve as an anchor of stability. After Algerian security forces succeeded in crushing the decade-long Islamist insurgency and in the context of rising regional instability, American and European officials came to regard Algeria as being a potentially valuable security partner in the Maghreb and the Sahel. However, as this essay shows, Algeria’s military doctrine must be updated for this partnership to truly flourish — and for Algeria itself to thrive.
