Escalating Arms Race Heightens Tensions Between Morocco and Algeria

For a few years now, the impressive rearmament that Morocco and Algeria have been showing is worrying. With the frigate acquired in 2014, the 200 M1A1 Abrams combat tanks and the 1,200 missiles purchased in 2016, Rabat has made a sensation in recent months by acquiring 36 Apache helicopters, notes okdiario.com which reveals that the acquisition of this war material is motivated by the old "rivalry with its neighbor, Algeria, with which it has kept the border closed for 20 years. Algiers is the main supporter of Sahrawi independence".

To explain this situation, we must, according to Ana Torres-García, doctor in Arab philology and professor of history of the Arab world at the University of Seville, go back to the independence of Algeria. "Algeria took a socialist orientation and allied itself with the Soviet Union. However, Morocco was the antithesis, allied with the United States, and has a monarchy," recalls the professor, noting that "these differences and this enmity have been maintained over time".

According to the Forbes magazine, Washington has signed contracts with Rabat for more than $10 billion, making the Alawite kingdom the North African country that has procured the most weapons from the United States. Indeed, the kingdom has taken advantage of its good relations with the United States to afford "modern and high-level equipment to face its historical rivalry with Algeria," details Ana Torres-García. To all this is added, according to César Pintado, professor at the International Campus of Security and Defense, the restoration by Morocco of "compulsory military service in April for men and women".

Faced with this show of force, Algeria has reacted by procuring fighter-bombers from the Russians. But in reality, explains Professor Pintado, "although they have a very large army, the Algerians had very outdated equipment". In the wake, to get up to date, according to the London newspaper The Arab Weekly, the country signs new contracts with Moscow and orders 14 Su-34 bombers, 14 Su-35 fighters and 14 other aircraft to replace the aging equipment. This is in addition to the signing, for the purchase of 14 "stealth aircraft" of the Sukhoi Su-57 model, with Russia.

However, despite this frantic arms race by the two countries, "the rivalry between Morocco and Algeria will not intensify and will not explode, as long as instability persists in the region," says Beatriz Gutiérrez, professor of international relations at the European University of Madrid, who will moreover be supported in her analyzes by Professor Torres-García.