The GWOT and North Africa:

Maj. Gen. Jonathan S. Gration, the director of strategy, policy, and assessments at US European Command told an audience at a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies roundtable that the US needs to help governments in North Africa to build regional security cooperation, military capacity, and foster economic growth. Persistent tensions between Algeria and Morocco over the Western Sahara and a lack of a regional security organization to work with the African Union are impediments to regional security, Gration said. He added that indigenous terror groups are a growing primary threat in the region. Fighters who fled Afghanistan have found safe haven near the Sahara where they are able to operate free of most interference from governments. (Read our 2004 article describing the “Swamp of Terror” here.)