Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 13 - Año: 2019 - Págs.: 213 a 242 235 Ignacio Fuente Cobo Security policies in the Maghreb from the perspective… security is based on the principle of the insecurity of the other. Unlike other region-al security systems such as the European Union, in which security between states is achieved through foreign and defence policies characterised by moderation and the resignation of expansion66, in the Maghreb, on the contrary, it is more difficult to negotiate and give in to achieve mutual security67, which makes the security dilemma seen from the perspective of offensive realism very difficult to manage. “Territorial greed” and the security dilemma As noted above, both Morocco and Algeria seek to increase their security by max-imising their national power, so that the more military advantage one has over the other, the more secure it feels, which favours rearmament and territorial expansion, regardless of the influence this has on the other state’s perception of insecurity. This conception of the offensive realism of the security policies on the part of both regional powers diminishes the importance of the security dilemma, which considers that military advantages can be counterproductive, since they make the other state more insecure and, therefore, more difficult to dissuade, leading to a decrease in their own security as an end result. The severity of the security dilemma thus depends on the “greedy” nature of each state. As the Maghreb is a regional system in which the two potentially dominant states are “greedy” and have expansive security policies, the security dilemma is less important, given that both are more concerned with their own security through rearmament and expansion than with the insecurity of their adversary.68. Moreover, in a second sense, when trying to reduce one’s adversary’s security one state invariably ends up reducing its own, by increasing the value that the adversary attaches to its own territorial expansion as a way of increasing security. This makes it more difficult for them to be deterred69. An adversary who feels weak might find that expansion is desirable, as it strengthens security at its borders by providing strategic depth and, at the same time, greater access to resources are added to its national power70. The combination of both perspectives in the context of the Maghreb, makes both Morocco and Algeria seek, in general, to maximize their national power behaving as expansive states, rather than as peaceful states that seek simply to guarantee their 66 TALIAFERRO (2000-2001). Op.Cit., p.159. 67 TANG (2009). Op.Cit. Pp.587-623. 68 GLASER (1997). Op.Cit. p.190. 69 Ibid, p. 177. 70 LIBERMAN: (1996). Does Conquest Pay? The Exploitation of Occupied Industrial Societies, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, p.16.
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