The war in Mali and Algeria's foreign policy washout

The crisis in Mali is set to escalate – particularly since the war has gone beyond Mali’s borders, reaching every part of the Sahara and the Sahel. We are currently witnessing the first stages of the war in Mali. The struggle has already turned into a regional one, with Algeria forced into engagement in the most unexpected way: a terrorist-led hostage crisis involving foreigners and Algerian nations in a gas field deep in the desert. It is fairly remarkable that this is the first major hostage-taking incident ever to take place in an Algerian mineral-rich area, although the Algerian army was kept busy there by armed terrorist groups throughout the 1990s. But these groups never targeted the country’s oil and gas fields. So what has changed in 2013? Or to phrase the question a little better, what lessons can we learn from In Amenas? Putting aside the Algerian authorities' rashness in launching a military operation aimed at releasing hostages with no consideration for the outcome, the next question in everyone’s minds is how the authorities managed to play down the probability of an expansion in terrorist activities across the borders while the French operation in Mali kicked off.  How could a country with such a long, drawn-out experience of terrorism maintain such a loose state of security? It looks like the Algerian authorities failed to premeditate the repercussions of the French military campaign in Mali. Although the Algerians have repeatedly ruled out a military solution to the Malian crisis, when the French campaign started, Algeria allowed French jets into its airspace. Algeria probably played down the ability of terrorists in northern Mali to respond effectively to the French – although the authorities were aware that some of the country’s diplomats were still in terrorists’ hands after April 2012 when Islamists stormed the northern Malian town of Gao, entering the city’s Algerian consulate at the same time. The In Amenas incident has demonstrated first and foremost that there is a real need for a new, comprehensive security strategy in both the Sahara and Sahel regions, a vast area that extends from Mauritania in the west to the South Sudanese Red Sea shores in the east. Developments in Mali cannot be isolated from al-Qaeda’s spread across the whole region. Algerian foreign policy now looks like a bit of a washout. It saw itself as a regional superpower that didn’t need to seek regional collaboration in its war against terrorism. Algeria had always insisted on its right to launch a war against terrorism taking place within its territories. However the Algerians did the complete opposite when that terrorism took place in neighbouring countries. According to the Algerian orthodoxy, every terrorist deserves to be killed as long as he is found in Algeria, otherwise, his work should be praised, particularly if he is working on destroying the stability of any of Algeria's neighbours – particularly Morocco. 2013 is going to witness radical changes in regional circumstances. The old Libya is gone, now a free arena for terrorist groups. Insurgents actually seem to be having fun there. The same may also apply to Tunisia, now suffering from a lack of centralised control on top of a deteriorating social situation. Moreover Mali, which used to share close relations with the Algerians, has now turned into a direct threat against them. Meanwhile, there is no clear sign that Mauritania’s central government is likely to restore its old power. This prospect has received a particularly strong blow following the ambiguous incident in which President Mohammed Ould Abdelaziz was targeted. After this, neither Abdelaziz nor his regime looked to be in a safe position. Algeria used to appoint high-profile diplomats in Bamako [Mali’s capital], officials who had previously served as ambassadors in Tehran, Beirut, Riyadh and London. This serves as a pretty good indication of Mali’s significance for the Algerians. Regardless of whether the French campaign succeeds in uprooting terrorism in Mali, Algeria will still need to reconsider its foreign policy. The old policy was based on keeping Morocco away from any serious participation in the war against terrorism, while also exploiting the so-called "Sahara cause" to blackmail the Moroccans. What happened in the Algerian gas fields will be a turning point, as well as an indication that the entire region has changed. What was acceptable in the past is not acceptable anymore. Are the Algerians ready to accept this change and learn from the delusions of the past? In order to do that, they have to admit that the war against terrorism needs the full cooperation of all the regional players. There is simply no excuse for a country to fight terrorism at home and ignore it abroad anymore. This Syrian-style policy belongs to a bygone age. And that age must never be repeated - not under any circumstances. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.