Into Africa
Algeria Can Guide Washington
by Stanley A. Weiss

WASHINGTON - In the film based on Isak Dinesen's classic 1937 memoir Out of Africa, the worldly Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) cautions the naïve plantation-owning Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) that, "We're not owners here. We're just passing through."

With security and economic interests luring the United States deeper into Africa than ever before, Washington could likewise benefit from the guidance of a partner that knows the terrain. Indeed, Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Algiers this week underscores that whether the U.S. simply passes through or helps promote security, prosperity and democracy across the North African Maghreb nations and sub-Saharan Africa may well rest on an Algerian-American partnership.

U.S. Ambassador to Algeria Richard Erdman tells me that, "we now have an interesting convergence of political, economic and regional interests. For the first time, we have a solid basis and opportunities for an important development of ties."

With weak governments, porous borders, impoverished populations, and home to an estimated quarter of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, Africa is a fertile breeding ground for anti-Western Islamic extremism. In a broadcast this year, Osama bin Laden declared that Nigeria, the continent's most populous country with 120 million people, half of them Muslim, is "ready for liberation."

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, General James Jones, whose U.S. European Command includes most of Africa, worries about the continent's "large ungoverned regions" as possible havens for terrorists. He envisions a "family" of "forward-operating locations," what he calls "lily pads" from which American forces can jump off to respond to crises.

Strategic Algeria could prove a logical "lily pad" for West Africa. To the east, Washington already is deepening security ties with Tunisia (site of last year's synagogue bombing) and with Morocco to the west (site of May's terrorist attacks in Casablanca). To the south, U.S. forces are helping Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad to better protect their poorly guarded Sahara borders.

If, as President George W. Bush says, "Africa is on the front lines of the war against terror," Algeria is front and center. The rebel Salafist Group, with its known links to al Qaeda, refuses to lay down its arms in Algeria's 11-year viscous civil war. Government security forces last year killed al Qaeda operative Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, who was reportedly in Algeria to coordinate with the Salafist Group.

President Abdelazziz Bouteflika was the first Arab leader to condemn the September 11 attacks, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns says American-Algerian counter-terrorism cooperation is "outstanding" and that "Algerian assistance is helping to save American lives."

In return, Washington has increased non-lethal aid and training for the Algerian military. U.S. warships have made port calls as part of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, designed to improve security and stability along Europe's southern flank. Even still, U.S. military aid next year to Algeria, the second most populous Arab nation (behind Egypt), will total a paltry $700,000.

Over the long-term, Algeria also can help Washington win hearts and minds by offering Africans a more hopeful vision of the future than the maniacal delusions of al Qaeda. Next year's presidential elections, if free and fair, will be an opportunity for Algerian secularists and moderate Islamic parties to show that democracy and Islam are not mutually exclusive.

With the third largest economy in Africa, Algeria has the opportunity to become a regional economic engine that offers West Africans the most lethal antidote to the hate-filled preachings of bin Laden - prosperity and modernity. Already one of the most developed African nations, Algeria is expanding trade with the European Union and is scheduled to join the World Trade Organization next year.

Algiers has played a leading role in promoting foreign investment across the continent through the New Partnership for Africa's Development. The energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney called the vast oil reserves of nations along the Gulf of Guinea "the fastest-growing source of oil and gas for the American market." Planning for a Nigeria-Algeria pipeline (via Niger) is already underway, and West Africa is expected to provide up to 25 percent of American oil needs by 2015.

But Algeria and West Africa need not repeat past mistakes that have left virtually all the world's oil-dependent regimes (Algeria included) undemocratic and underdeveloped. The Bush Administration's Millennium Challenge funds offer historic levels of foreign aid to nations that demonstrate good governance. By insisting that all petrodollars from the new Chad-Cameroon pipeline go through a transparent fund managed by an independent consortium, the World Bank has developed a promising model for ensuring that oil revenues are invested in health, education and economic development.

President Bush says that, "America is committed to the success of Africa." Over the long-term, success requires regional security and prosperity, including a stable, prosperous and democratic Algeria. Otherwise, the Americans will just be passing through.