Strategic and Geopolitical Battles in the Western Mediterranean
Pedro Canales
For over half a century, since the end of World War II, the western Mediterranean has been a limited theater of the Cold War, where land and naval activities, commando operations, intelligence actions, alliances, and geopolitical shifts followed the imperatives of the confrontation between the Washington-led bloc (Canada, the United States, and Western Europe), and the Soviet bloc led by Moscow. It was the primary and determining factor.
The decolonization processes in Africa, the Algerian war, the revolution in the Libyan Jamahiriya led by Colonel Gaddafi, Spain’s abandonment of its last colony in Western Sahara and its transfer to Mauritania and Morocco, along with the successive Arab-Israeli wars and the Gulf wars, were meticulously monitored and overseen by the bases on both sides in the western Mediterranean, southwestern Europe, and North Africa: the American bases in Rota and Morón, the British base in Gibraltar, Toulon of the French navy, the British naval airbase in Weelhus, Libya, Mers el-Kébir in French Algeria until independence in 1962, which was then used as a refueling stop by the Soviet (Russian) army and navy, along with the one in Tripoli, and the pro-Soviet bases in Egypt, all of which were key points in the Cold War.
However, in recent years, we have been witnessing a strategic redeployment that is reshaping the geopolitical map of the western Mediterranean. All the historical players remain, including Russia in place of the USSR, but new players have joined: Iran, China, and the United Arab Emirates/Saudi Arabia duo on one side; and Germany, Japan, and a more proactive British presence on the other.
The conflicts and tensions still present in the region of southwestern Europe and North Africa, including the Maghreb and the Sahel, are no longer addressed in the same terms as in the 1970s or the early 21st century. The rivalry between Algeria and Morocco, the Western Sahara conflict, the inextricable crisis in Libya, the erupting volcano in the Sahel from Mauritania to Chad, are no longer seen in the same way as before.
One of the new phenomena in this reorganization of the regional geopolitical map is that southern countries, which were once mere spectators, are now gaining prominence. Morocco has built a modern naval base at Ksar-el-Seguir at the very entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, from which it can control naval and submarine access to the Mediterranean, and has modernized the naval bases of Casablanca and Agadir, from which it projects its power into the Atlantic and co-organizes military exercises with the United States under the African Lion; Algeria is revitalizing the naval bases of Mers el-Kébir, Oran, Jijel, and Tamentfoust, and modernizing the airbases of Boufarik, Aïn Oussera, Béchar, and Laghouat, participating in maneuvers with both the Russian army and NATO navies; Mauritania has transformed its small maritime base in Nouadhibou into a modern one with facilities capable of exercising control over its extensive territorial waters, stretching over more than 750 km of Atlantic coastline. Spain has reactivated the Balearic-Strait-Canary axis, which emerged in 1980 as the center of gravity for Spanish strategic planning; and France, an active participant in the joint Moroccan-American African Lion exercises, has reconsidered its African Atlantic projection as a priority, recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara and planning its Paris-Rabat-Dakhla-Nouakchott-Dakar axis.
In this way, the incorporation of new actors into the strategic and geopolitical arena is largely due to the new objectives that have emerged in the western Mediterranean, the Sahara/Sahel, and its extension to the south of the continent: the vast reserves of metals and rare earth elements in the region; the submarine deposits of metals essential for medium-term technological development; the enormous potential reserves of wind and solar energy; the lithium reserves in Africa (Mali, Congo, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana); the cobalt and tellurium from Mount Tropic, located equidistant between the Sahara and the Canary Islands; the gold from Mali, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and South Africa; the cobalt, lithium, and coltan, dubbed the essential minerals for launching the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which are housed in the Congo. All of this marks the geopolitical challenge in which the main international players are engaged.
France, the United States, and Great Britain, as well as Russia, China, and Japan, are part of the equations of African coastal projection spearheaded by Morocco, with the Nigeria/Morocco pipeline linking 11 countries; and Algeria’s vertical African projection, with the direct Nigeria/Algeria pipeline and the reactivation of the Algeria-Nigeria-South Africa axis. All local, regional, and inter-African conflicts are now viewed through this lens.
The United Kingdom has become a key player, both directly through its direct connection to African capitals that are members of the Commonwealth and the new London-Rabat and London-Algiers axes, and indirectly through the role of Gibraltar, the main espionage and intelligence base with African and Arab projection, military base (its two main installations are the RAF airbase in the northern part of the rock and the Navy Dockyard military shipyard in the west of the peninsula), and financial business hub that resembles more of a Caribbean tax haven, where major technological and industrial macro-projects are passed through to serve as a link between Europe and Africa. London, which is likely to follow the Paris route in the short term regarding Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara, is building electric and data connection cables between Great Britain, Gibraltar, and Morocco and is extending its support to Algeria in its major infrastructure projects. The relations between the royal houses of the United Kingdom and Morocco go back a long way. In 2014, the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II reached an agreement with the Moroccan government of King Mohammed VI to import 50,000 tons of sand from the Western Sahara desert and transport it to Gibraltar to fill Sandy Bay beach.
In this framework of geopolitical revolution, the Strait Tunnel project between Spain and Morocco is situated, which will link continental Europe and Africa, possibly by the end of this decade. This gigantic work has attracted the attention of Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Americans, and Europeans, including Britons who are acting independently after Brexit, all present in the region, and marks the essential chessboard for resolving tensions and disputes, such as the Algerian-Moroccan one, the Sahara dispute, and those in Libya and the Sahel.
