- Research Paper 64 – How to revitalize the dialogue between NATO and the Maghreb countries; Comment redynamiser le Dialogue méditerranéen de l’OTAN avec les pays du Maghreb?, by Pierre. Razoux
Following the recent Lisbon Summit and the adoption of the Atlantic Alliance’s new Strategic Concept, which acknowledges the importance of close cooperation with partners, it is worth asking a few questions about ways of giving fresh impetus to the Mediterranean Dialogue, especially with the Maghreb countries.
NATO and the Maghreb countries do have some common interests in facing certain challenges they share: providing for the stability of the region, ensuring that political and religious extremism do not spread any further, combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, fostering energy security between the two sides and the two ends of the Mediterranean, and lastly reinforcing security in the Sahel region, which is rapidly becoming a vast area of lawlessness where terrorism and trafficking of all kinds flourish. The importance and far-reaching implications of such issues should convince both the leaders of NATO member countries and their opposite numbers in the Maghreb countries of the need to give fresh impetus to the Mediterranean Dialogue.
This Research Paper reflects the findings of the Round Table on this topic organized in Rome on 17th September 2010 by the NATO Defense College.
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