Over three decades since the launch of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Maghreb region today finds itself deeply divided. A succession of diplomatic and security crises, mainly between the AMU’s lynchpin states, Algeria and Morocco, over regional leadership and their dispute over the Western Sahara conflict, led to the severance of their diplomatic relations. The Maghreb disunion has intensified against a broader backdrop of a major reconfiguration of regional alliances in the Sahel in light of shifting global dynamics. The long-standing hegemony of France and other traditional actors has eroded in the wake of a series of military coups, particularly in Mali (2020-2021), Burkina Faso (2022), and Niger (2023). This created an opening for new partnerships, especially with Russia, China, Turkey and the Gulf states.[1]
As a result of these regional and international dynamics, both Algeria and Morocco are pursuing competing agendas in search of alternative alliances outside the AMU framework that provide them with respective spheres of influence. Drawing on a decade-long African strategy, Morocco launched the “Atlantic Initiative” in November 2023, aimed at providing landlocked Sahelian countries with maritime access to the Atlantic Ocean. By March 2024, Algeria initiated a new Maghreb bloc limited to an alliance with Tunisia and Libya, aiming to enhance consultation and partnership among the three countries.
The competing initiatives launched by Morocco and Algeria in pursuit of regional leadership beyond the framework of the Arab Maghreb Union raise critical questions about the future of this organization, as well as the nature of the Maghreb region’s relationship with its African neighbouring countries considering the complex entanglement of political, security, and economic interests and risks between the two spheres.
[1] Nina Wilén, "Stepping up Engagement in the Sahel: Russia, China, Turkey and the Gulf States," Egmont Institute for International Relations, 29/04/2025, accessed on 29/7/2025, at https://acr.ps/1L9GPv7
