About Article

In contrast to the United States’ relations with neighboring Morocco and Tunisia, those with Algeria are quite complex. Although US-Algerian relations have never reached the level of hostility that characterized US dealings with Libya until 2003, they have been antagonistic from Algerian independence in 1962 until the past decade. Some of the guarded differences in the views of the United States and Algeria are explained by the determinants of Algerian foreign policy, which is shaped by the regional geopolitical context; the country‘s historical experience, mainly the national liberation war (1954-1962); ideological imperatives; and the economic choices imposed by postcolonial conditions. There is also the fact that Algeria continues to oppose what it perceives as the United States’ global hegemonic aims.