The Maghreb: Strategic Interests

Since the 1990s, numerous analysts in France and in the Maghreb have been concerned that the United States is showing too much interest in the Maghreb region.1 There were suspicions that the United States, in fact, wished to displace French influence in this area. But what has really happened? What are the United States’ interests in the Maghreb? Is it true that the United States wishes to eliminate French and European influence in the Maghreb? Is it true that a conspicuous U.S. presence aims at countering the growing Chinese and Russian influence in the region? Is it also true that the United States—through various programs, such as the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Millennium Challenge Account—seeks to undermine European initiatives, such as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process), replaced by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2008? The main argument in this chapter is that U.S. interest in the Maghreb region has grown considerably and that, in terms of regional security, Washington has already downgraded Europe’s (mainly France’s) influence in what it now considers a strategic area for the United States following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.