Editing Foreign relations of Algeria (section)

=== During Ben Bella's presidency (1962–1965) ===
Following its independence in 1962, Algeria developed deep ties with many foreign countries with a heavy presence in the global scene. The Algerian government, pursuing the dynamics that had started during the Algerian War for Independence and into the [[Cold War]] used the country's strategic geopolitical position – at the crossroads of Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian world – to assert its own interests. Algeria came to see itself as a full actor in the Cold War and not simply a bystander caught in a crossfire between the Western and Eastern blocs. Moreover, Algeria played a central role in the creation of the [[Third World]] as a global political project, using its position at the intersection of international agendas – notably between non-alignment and Afro-Asianism positions, and between [[Anti-imperialism|anticolonial]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] movements.

==== Algeria at the center of the competition between the Western and Eastern superpowers ====
Being a newly independent country from colonial rule of a Western power – France – and having waged a liberation war with a socialist orientation, Algeria was naturally inclined to turn towards the [[Soviet Union]] and its allies. However, the country's strategic advantages increased its importance to the eyes of the Western bloc. Primarily, [[France]] wanted to preserve its interests in the oil and gas exploitations in Algeria. As [[Charles de Gaulle]] stated to the Algerian finance minister in 1963, "If the Algerian government respects its commitments and takes into account our interests, it can count on our cooperation". Hence, French economic aid continued to flow in Algeria, to ensure control on the petroleum and gas industry as well as maintain  continued use of Algerian soil to run [[Nuclear weapons testing|atomic tests in the Saharan desert]]. Under [[Ahmed Ben Bella|Ben Bella]], diplomatic relations with France were normalized, the negotiations concerning oil and gas leading to an agreement in 1964. As to the [[United States]], they wanted to prevent Algeria from becoming yet another socialist country joining the ranks of the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet bloc]]. Hence, along with minor military equipment, the United States provided Algeria with a food program (PL-480) which delivered free food to the population. However, the Algerian commitment to supporting anti-colonial movements in Africa went against American interests in  the continent, which led to an indirect conflict with the United States and an increasingly hostile relationship between the two countries.

During the war for independence, the [[National Liberation Army (Algeria)|ALN]] had already benefitted from equipment, training and advice from communist countries: the USSR (though its help was quite timid until the final months of the war), [[China]], [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and [[Czechoslovakia]]. Moreover, [[National Liberation Army (Algeria)|ALN]] delegations had visited China and [[North Vietnam]] to learn from their [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] strategies. Help and support from the communist bloc therefore increased after independence:

* Even though Algeria was not a communist regime, the [[Soviet Union]] invested massive amounts of money and material help in the country. For instance, in 1963, the USSR granted $200 million in import credits for Soviet machinery to help build the Algerian industry, and committed to building a petrochemical research institute. The Soviet Union also agreed to buy agricultural products and minerals that Algeria was struggling to export. It was finally the country's main military supplier, providing planes, tanks, armored vehicles, ships, light weapons and ammunition for a total of 11 billion dollars from 1962 to 1989.
* The other great communist power, [[China]], demonstrated its interest in Algeria as a fellow antiimperialist country. Hence, when [[Zhou Enlai]] visited Algeria in December 1963, he granted Algeria a low-interest loan of $100 million. Moreover, the Chinese were more aggressive in their support for armed groups fighting imperialist and neo-imperialist regimes in Africa. Algeria and China therefore cooperated on this matter, with China contributing to ANP training camps, and shipping weapons and revolutionary militants to Algeria.

The [[Sino-Soviet split]] strengthened the two communist countries' competition for Algeria. However, China was inferior economically and militarily to the USSR, and could not match the USSR's industrial equipment and sophisticated armaments. Moreover, as the autogestion model proved to be widely inefficient, Algeria started to move towards a more centralized and Soviet-style economy by the end of 1964.

==== Algeria and the Third World project ====
Ben Bella's foreign policy was marked by globalism, as it was not restrained to a specific culture nor geographical region. Rather, the project of the [[Third-Worldism|Third World]] and its diverse manifestations – the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], the [[Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation|Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization]], etc. – were meant to include all the developing and anti-imperialist countries, and Algeria intended to play a major role in its development.

This role is perfectly summarized by [[Amílcar Cabral|Amilcar Cabral]]'s – leader of the [[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde]] – famous declaration that Algeria was the "Mecca of revolution". Indeed, the Algerian foreign policy had been influenced by [[Frantz Fanon]]'s and other radical Third World thinkers' urgings to "export revolution" to other countries suffering from the yoke of imperial oppression. Therefore, the support of armed nationalists and revolutionaries was one of the foundations of Algerian relations with African countries. Ever since 1960, the FLN camps in Algeria's neighboring countries ([[Morocco]], [[Tunisia]] and [[Mali]]) had been used to provide training and material help to revolutionary movements. By 1963, Algeria was offering refuge, funds, weapons and training to rebels from a dozen African countries: the left-wing opposition in Morocco, the secessionist Sanwi government in Ivory Coast, the [[Sawaba|Sawaba party]] in Niger, the CNL (or "Simbas") in [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Congo-Leopoldville]], the [[Union of the Peoples of Cameroon|UPC]] in Cameroon, the [[MPLA]] and [[National Liberation Front of Angola|FNLA]] in Angola (250 recruits were trained in Algeria and 70 tons of armaments were sent to this country), and several armed groups in Zanzibar, Portuguese Guinea, South Africa and Namibia.

However, the [[Third-Worldism|Third World]] project also materialized through the various conferences and international organizations that united developing countries. Firstly, the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], which was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and which Algeria joined shortly after its independence, defined the concept of non-alignment in the Cold War as a way for poor countries to exploit the conflicts and tensions and hence to promote their own interests. According to Jeffrey J. Byrne, the Algerian conception of the Non-Aligned Movement was that of a "political, goal-oriented and geographically unbounded anti-imperial solidarity". The Third World coalition could therefore encompass Latin America countries, and even Europe ones like [[Yugoslavia]]. Algeria was particularly important in this sense, as it acted as a bridge between blocs and regions. For instance, its position at the crossroads of the Arab and the sub-Saharan worlds enabled Algeria to create links and unity between these two regions: at Algeria's request, Arab countries supported Angolan and other African revolutions, while African countries endorsed the Palestinian cause. However, these global Third World solidarity links went further than Africa: for example, the [[Viet Cong|National Liberation Front of South Vietnam]] opened a permanent office in Algiers (one of only two that were located in non-communist countries). One of the most successful Third World projects was the [[Organisation of African Unity|Organization of African Unity]], founded in Addis Ababa in 1963 to formalize and institutionalize the main Third World principles. Moreover, Algeria advocated for the creation within the organization of a "liberation committee", the "Committee of Nine", to support national liberation movements (even by military means). This embodies the Algerian view of Third Worldism: the institutionalization of collective defiance towards the imperial system.

Therefore, if the multipolarity of international relations – the traditional East versus West bipolarism, but also the intra-communist poles and the development of Third World alternatives – had benefitted the non-aligned states such as Algeria, the latter's increasing reliance on the Soviet Union – especially since the [[Sand War]] against Morocco in 1963 – risked jeopardizing the country's independence and its relations with other powers, such as the United States or China.