The Cost of "Non-Maghreb"

Book excerpt: Over the last decades, rivalries, bilateral disagreements, and distrust between Maghreb states have taken a toll on common political and security challenges, like the Western Sahara issue, the Libyan conflict, the destabilisation in the Sahel region and transnational clandestine flows. Moreover, the Maghreb is one of the least economically integrated regions in the world, and this leads to the region's loss in growth, and the disheartening record of missed opportunities for stability and prosperity. This is the cost of the "non-Maghreb". This Report aims to unpack the political and economic costs of the "non-Maghreb", understand its historical genesis and geopolitical implications and, more broadly, what the future might hold for individual countries and the Maghreb as a divided, fractious but potentially coherent whole.