Think Forward.

Morocco–United States and Côte d’Ivoire: The New Strategic Framework to Strengthen the Counterterrorism Fight in the Sahel 7757

Aziz Daouda, 7 mon.
On April 24, 2025, in Abidjan, the Ivorian Minister of Defense, Téné Birahima Ouattara, received the United States Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, Jessica Davis Ba, accompanied by General Michael Langley, the renowned AFRICOM commander. This meeting clearly fits into a major geostrategic dynamic where Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, the United States, and the G5 Sahel countries are strengthening their cooperation to combat the transnational terrorist threat that has long destabilized the Sahel and North Africa. It is worth recalling that the pact concluded in Algeria under Bouteflika with armed groups shifted the threat southward within the country, exacerbating instability in the Sahel after a war that caused more than 250,000 Algerian deaths. In this new security architecture, Côte d’Ivoire positions itself as a key player south of the unstable zones. Washington is intensifying its military presence there with a drone base in Bouaké and a donation of 12 armored vehicles to reinforce Ivorian defense, especially in areas exposed to terrorism. This partnership also includes training for Ivorian forces and the establishment of maintenance infrastructure, illustrating cooperation expected to endure over time. Joint exercises in Bingerville, still in Côte d’Ivoire, demonstrate the growing strength of Ivorian forces in synergy with the United States, consolidating an essential link in West African security. Côte d’Ivoire, historically allied with Morocco, thus becomes a central actor in this regional cohesion. This could not happen without Rabat being informed and possibly even playing a facilitating role beforehand. Morocco asserts itself as a key actor in the counterterrorism fight in North Africa and the Sahel, coordinating its actions with the G5 Sahel, the most effective platform against various jihadist groups—essentially mere gangsters. Its intense participation in military exercises such as African Lion 2025, notably in its southern provinces, strengthens coordination with American, African, and other forces. Training in handling the mobile HIMARS artillery system, for example, testifies to the strategic depth of the Morocco–United States partnership. This new regional cohesion makes the Kingdom a major stabilizer, promoting a multilateral approach to terrorism, illicit trafficking, and hybrid conflicts. The Sahelo-Saharan region, now aligned with Morocco, faces complex threats, including the porous links between separatist movements like the Polisario Front and terrorist networks. Southern Algeria has become a lawless zone conducive to trafficking and multifaceted jihadism, threatening regional stability. Mali increasingly denounces Algerian interference and its support for terrorist groups, while Mauritania recently closed its border with Algeria near Tindouf, the Polisario’s stronghold. Algeria, at worst, if not openly encouraging, tolerates its territory as a strategic fallback zone and a supplier—particularly of fuel—vital for the survival and activities of various groups. The G5 Sahel Joint Force, even after the French withdrawal from the region, remains limited by funding and equipment deficits, highlighting the urgent need for strengthened international support. The growing military power of Côte d’Ivoire, cooperation with Morocco, and American support thus fit into a comprehensive regional strategy to contain these threats. Algeria, despite itself, is a pressured partner, hosting the Polisario Front for over 50 years. Increasingly, this group is being labeled a terrorist organization and will soon be so in the USA by law. In May 2025, the American destroyer USS Forrest Sherman’s stopover in Algiers and joint naval exercises with the country reflect the US desire to maintain a strategic Mediterranean presence, thereby involving Algiers more in counterterrorism. The memorandum of understanding signed in January 2025 between Washington and Algiers underscores this increased responsibility regarding threats on Algeria’s southern borders. The region is thus heading toward a new security architecture. The Abidjan meeting and the scale of maneuvers south of Morocco illustrate a profound transformation of security cooperation in West and North Africa. Morocco’s rise as a central actor, combined with strengthened partnerships between Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, and the G5 Sahel, shapes this new, more coherent and effective geostrategic architecture. In the same vein, one can also mention recent visits by Emirati officials in the region and the very recent visit of Marshal Haftar’s son, General Saddam Haftar, to Niger, following previous visits to Burkina Faso and even Israel some time ago. The noose is tightening around terrorist groups, now cut off from their strategic refuges. Their last resort remains the north via Algeria and Libya, where internal conflicts complicate the fight. This multilateral regional approach appears as the best response to restore stability and security in a region rapidly evolving due to recent political changes. Morocco, the first to adapt to these developments, is reaping the benefits of its non-interference strategy by forging strong economic and strategic complementarity with its partners. From Rabat to Abidjan, no zone escapes this economic and security dynamic desired by His Majesty the King. Algeria’s now shaky stance and its belligerent rhetoric toward neighbors no longer impress. The death knell has sounded for desert extremist groups, notably the Polisario and its ambiguous role for over half a century.
Aziz Daouda Aziz Daouda

Aziz Daouda

Directeur Technique et du Développement de la Confédération Africaine d'Athlétisme. Passionné du Maroc, passionné d'Afrique. Concerné par ce qui se passe, formulant mon point de vue quand j'en ai un. Humaniste, j'essaye de l'être, humain je veux l'être. Mon histoire est intimement liée à l'athlétisme marocain et mondial. J'ai eu le privilège de participer à la gloire de mon pays .


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THE ENCHIRIDION - I 3649

Bluwr X Commons: Epictetus, 2 y.
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1.1 min read.
There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs. Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature dependent and take what belongs to others for your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm. Aiming, therefore, at such great things, remember that you must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, toward the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit some of them, and for the present postpone the rest. But if you would have these, and possess power and wealth likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom are procured. Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, “You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing.” And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER - PREFACE 3817

Bluwr X Commons: Mark Twain, 2 y.
- Short Stories -
0.6 min read.
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in. THE AUTHOR. HARTFORD, 1876.

THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 3930

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.
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3.7 min read.
1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.