Admiral John Wikoff’s two-day visit to Algiers last week, culminating in meetings with Defense Minister-Delegate and Army Chief of Staff General Said Chengriha, was framed by Algerian state media as a milestone in bilateral military partnership. The optics were carefully choreographed: handshakes at the Defense Ministry, talk of a “roadmap” for joint exercises, and warm rhetoric about mutual respect and shared security interests. Washington, eager for reliable partners in the Sahel and the western Mediterranean, appeared satisfied.

Algeria’s military establishment is not a partner seeking regional stability. It is a regime apparatus engaged in a sophisticated, decades-long project of extracting international legitimacy while maintaining domestic repression, deflecting accountability, and playing great powers against one another to preserve the primacy of the generals who have governed Algeria since independence.

The Non-Alignment Fiction

General Chengriha’s statement during the visit was revealing in its careful ambiguity. Algeria, he said, would “remain faithful to its historical legacy” and committed to “non-alignment and the sovereignty of its decision-making.” This formulation sounds principled. In practice, it functions as a diplomatic escape clause that allows Algiers to accept American military cooperation on one hand while maintaining deep security and energy ties with Russia and China on the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)