The U.S. and Algeria share a long history of cooperation, tensions and mutual respect. Algeria, then the Regency of Algiers, recognised U.S. independence in 1795, among the earliest states to do so, and then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy publicly supported Algerian independence from the 1950s onward.
Nonetheless, both countries also had a period of broken ties from 1967 to 1974 over the Six-Day War. This shared history is important, as both senior American and Algerian policymakers still acknowledge that complicated past when they seek to forge their future relations.
Until a few years ago, Algeria and the U.S.โ relationship was mainly defined by military cooperation, driven by the Global War on Terror following the 11th September terrorist attacks.
The U.S. saw Algeria as a critical partner, particularly in the Sahel, and Algiers saw military cooperation as the best way to strengthen its ties with Washington, without risking a total geopolitical alignment. During the era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, this was part of a broader and careful engineering of Algeriaโs foreign policy to maintain relations with all partners.
This balanced dynamic was shaken eventually by a shift in the regional order when President Donald Trump recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020 in exchange for Rabatโs joining of the Abraham Accords.
In Algiers, there was no excessive public criticism of the U.S. position beyond the Foreign Ministry's communiquรฉ on the legality of the U.S. position, a reaction considered to be modest compared to Algiersโ decision to recall ambassadors from Spain and France following the same policy shift on Western Sahara. But behind the scenes, the policy change damaged the relationship.
Algiers had hoped President Joe Biden would reverse the decision, but when no such reversal came, it became clear that Algeria would have to recalibrate its relationship with Washington around this new reality.
Reinvigorated U.S. Diplomacy
During the tenure of U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Moore Aubin from early 2022 to early 2026, the U.S. and Algeria engaged in an unprecedented high-level dialogue on the future of U.S.-Algeria relations. Political changes in the region and increased security ties with Morocco made it evident that maintaining the partnership solely on the terms of military cooperation was no longer sufficient, with both sides looking towards further expanding their economic and cultural cooperation.
Aubin deserves the credit of pushing the U.S.-Algeria partnership forward, handling uncomfortable geopolitical conversations, and designing both the economic and diplomatic opening of the U.S. to Algeria and vice versa.
