Algeria is the only country of the Arab world where the army was at the origins of the creation of the nation-state. This peculiar fact explains the unique and influential role of the army in the Algerian regime, even though Algeria cannot be described as a military state. This article will attempt to demonstrate that the National Popular Army, or more precisely a “clan” coming from its ranks, has only played a direct political role during the civil war of the 1990s. Although the NPA still embodies, since the independence, the foundation and the safeguard of the established regime, its legitimacy is increasingly contested. As a consequence, we observe, since the 2000’s, a shift in its functions. While decreasing its role in political affairs, the army has focussed more on its core activity, the modernisation and the professionalization of Algeria’s Defence apparatus.