nach oben

2017 | Buch

Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Global, Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara’s Protracted Decolonization

When a Conflict Gets Old

herausgegeben von: Raquel Ojeda-Garcia, Irene Fernández-Molina, Victoria Veguilla

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" , Springer Professional "Technik"

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Über dieses Buch

This book explores the traces of the passage of time on the protracted and intractable conflict of Western Sahara. The authors offer a multilevel analysis of recent developments from the global to the local scenes, including the collapse of the architecture of the UN-led conflict resolution process, the advent of the War on Terror to the the Sahara-Sahel area and the impact of the ‘Arab Spring’ and growing regional security instability. Special attention is devoted to changes in the Western Sahara territory annexed by Morocco and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. Morocco has adapted its governance and public policies to profound socio-demographic transformations in the territory under its control and has attempted to obtain international recognition for this annexation by proposing an Autonomy Plan. The Polisario Front and Sahrawi nationalists have shifted their strategy and pushed the centre of gravity of the conflict back inwards by focusing on pro-independence activism inside the disputed territory.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Towards a Multilevel Analysis of the Western Sahara Conflict and the Effects of its Protractedness

Abstract

This chapter puts forward a multilevel analytical framework for the study of the Western Sahara conflict and the effects of its protractedness and intractability. The book brings together four levels of analysis—global, regional, state/national and local—with the aim of disentangling the dynamic interplay between them and searching for cross-level interactions over the last two decades, when an “inward turn” has brought the centre of gravity of the conflict back to the interior of the disputed territory where it originated in the 1970s. A call is made to localize research into these changes, in keeping with the “local turn” and “critical localism” recently advocated in conflict and peace studies. A review of the sparse academic literature on Western Sahara reveals trends such as the inclination towards exceptionalism in accounts of the conflict and the predominance of normative and legalistic approaches over empirical socio-political analyses. The difficulty and political implications of defining the nature and classifying this conflict are also discussed highlighting inconsistencies in international conflict databases.

Irene Fernández-Molina

Erratum to

Global, Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara’s Protracted Decolonization

Raquel Ojeda-Garcia, Irene Fernández-Molina, Victoria Veguilla

Global Level

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. The United Nations’ Change in Approach to Resolving the Western Sahara Conflict since the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This chapter highlights the difficulties encountered by the United Nations (UN) when trying to overcome the obstacles placed by the two parties to the dispute over Western Sahara—Morocco and the Polisario Front—in the implementation of the original 1991 UN Settlement Plan intended to result in a self-determination referendum. It explains why in February 2000, when it was clear that compiling a list of potential voters acceptable to both parties was impossible, the UN was compelled to change its approach to resolving the conflict to exploring a political solution to the dispute through direct talks with the two parties. The chapter discusses the difficulties encountered by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum on Western Sahara (MINURSO) and Personal Envoy James A. Baker when trying to move the parties toward the self-determination referendum and describes how, failing that, “political solutions” were subsequently put forward such as the 2003 Baker Plan II, which was rejected by Morocco. After discussing how the UN has dealt with the conflict since Baker’s resignation in 2004, the chapter makes suggestions as to how the Secretariat and Security Council could try to resolve the conflict.

Anna Theofilopoulou

Chapter 3. The Geopolitical Functions of the Western Sahara Conflict: US Hegemony, Moroccan Stability and Sahrawi Strategies of Resistance

Abstract

The Western Sahara dispute, now in its fourth decade, appears to be a forgotten and frozen conflict. In reality, the conflict and its perpetual irresolution are central to the ways in which USA hegemony was reconstituted in the late Cold War and the processes through which Washington has been able to reproduce its global dominance since then. At the same time, the irresolution of the Western Sahara conflict—a perpetual crisis at the heart of the Moroccan state—also helps reproduce the monarchical regime that has successfully governed Morocco since it seized the territory from Spain in 1975. While the Western Saharan nationalist movement has deployed an array of strategies aimed at confronting and accommodating North Atlantic dominance, none of these efforts have been able to disrupt the dynamics that necessarily maintain the Western Sahara impasse.

Jacob Mundy

Chapter 4. The EU’s Reluctant Engagement with the Western Sahara Conflict: Between Humanitarian Aid and Parliamentary Involvement

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has maintained an ambivalent discourse and practice in its position regarding the Sahara conflict. While institutions such as the Commission and the Council have remained in the background, adopting decisions and commercial agreements with Morocco and ignoring the conflict over the Western Sahara territory, the European Parliament has been much more likely to discuss it. The Parliament and the EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) through its development cooperation policy have been the two institutions that have sustained a more long-lasting and demanding interest in the Sahrawi question. The position of the European Parliament on the Sahrawi conflict has changed over time, determined by the composition of the Parliament and its varying conservative or socialist majorities. The nationality of parliamentary members has also had an influence and this has meant that parliamentary groups have not always been internally unanimous. Pressure from Morocco has been taken into account in a number of resolutions and has been significant at particular points in time.

María Luisa Grande-Gascón, Susana Ruiz-Seisdedos

Regional Levels

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Western Sahara and the Arab Spring

Abstract

On 10 October 2010, a protest camp in the Sahrawi desert area of Gdeim Izik was established. Some academics and political analysts saw in the Sahrawi protest a preface to the Arab Spring that broke out a few months later in various North African and Middle Eastern countries. The hypothesis in this chapter is that the Gdeim Izik and subsequent protests in Western Sahara cannot be placed within the social movements and the “fifth wave of political change” that have shaken the Middle East and North Africa. To prove this, the chapter identifies the particular characteristics of the Sahrawi protest; the absence of significant changes in the organization, representation and means of political participation in Western Sahara since the Gdeim Izik protest; the lack of consequences for the provinces of Western Sahara in the political reform process carried out by Morocco in response to the 20 February (20-F) social movement; and the absence of any improvements in the process of resolving the sovereignty conflict over Western Sahara.

Inmaculada Szmolka

Chapter 6. Algerian Foreign Policy towards Western Sahara

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is Algerian foreign policy towards the Western Sahara conflict and its evolution, trying to assess how the Algerian stance has been influenced by domestic factors as well as other concerns related to the evolving regional political and security context. This particular study is part of the multilevel analysis of the Western Sahara conflict presented in this book. The objective is to identify the domestic and foreign drivers for change and continuity in a historical perspective and in the current situation. The chapter first provides a general overview of Algerian foreign policy since independence and its position regarding the Western Sahara conflict. It then analyses the factors at home and abroad that have influenced this stance, evaluating the importance of different elements and identifying possible triggers that could provoke a change in the Algerian position.

Laurence Thieux

Chapter 7. Beyond Western Sahara, the Sahel-Maghreb Axis Looms Large

Abstract

This chapter analyses the recent transformation of regional security in the Maghreb and Sahel. It argues that the collapse of Muammar Qadhafi’s Libya combined with the refusal of Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s Algeria to act as a regional hegemon in the Sahel has produced a new conjuncture of intensified security interdependence between the Sahel and the Maghreb. It furthermore suggests that this new interdependence has eclipsed the Western Sahara conflict as the most important regional security issue capable of shaping present-day domestic and regional security politics in the two regions. The rise of the Sahel-Maghreb security issue, does not, however, signal an end to the importance of the Western Sahara conflict in regional security. While Algeria and Morocco may have developed an overlapping vision and shared interest in the future development of Libya after Qadhafi, the continued non-resolution of the Western Sahara conflict remains a potential root cause for a great regional power rupture between Algeria and Morocco.

Luis Martinez, Rasmus Alenius Boserup

Chapter 8. The Role of Sahrawis and the Polisario Front in Maghreb-Sahel Regional Security

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role played by the Polisario Front as the “administrator” of the Sahrawi refugee camps and the hegemonic force behind the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD). These elements that place it in a vital position to protect the camps from becoming a problem for regional security in the Maghreb and Sahel areas. It analyses the so-called relative deprivation theory and political mobilization as variables of radicalization, taking into account governance and socio-economic conditions as well as regional security threats that could jeopardize the situation in Tindouf and its surrounding area. From an exploratory and prospective point of view, it presents a SWOT analysis and establishes five strategic lines that should be monitored in order to prevent an escalation of the conflict in the future.

Miguel G. Guindo, Alberto Bueno

National and Local Levels (1): Moroccan Governance of the Western Sahara Territory

Frontmatter

Chapter 9. Western Sahara in the Framework of the New Moroccan Advanced Regionalization Reform

Abstract

The Advanced Regionalization Reform was initiated on 3 January 2010, when King Mohammed VI announced the creation of the Consultative Committee on Regionalization. Notwithstanding the fact that it was warmly welcomed by a large number of political actors, the reform was gradually demoted in the political sphere after popular protests erupted in the country in February 2011 in the context of the Arab Spring. From that time onwards, the king became the unique driving force behind the reform of the regional administration, using it to stall further negotiations on Western Sahara and to strengthen and normalize Morocco’s control over the territory. This chapter explores the impact that advanced regionalization could have on the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict and the way in which it has been a political instrument for the Moroccan state to reinforce its position in the dispute.

Raquel Ojeda-García, Ángela Suárez-Collado

Chapter 10. The Western Saharan Members of the Moroccan Parliament: Diplomacy and Perceptions of Identity

Abstract

This chapter analyses the activity of the members of the Moroccan parliament for Western Sahara constituencies (MMPWS) during the ninth legislature (2011–2015). It examines the interactions between the local, national and international levels of analysis in the context of their “parliamentary diplomacy” and the impact of these MPs’ identity self-perceptions upon that activity. We discuss the implications of the dual profile of these MPs as representatives in a state/national parliament (that of Morocco) of a territory (Western Sahara) that does not legally fall under Moroccan sovereignty and where the population is subjected to an antagonistic control relationship. To that end, the chapter first introduces some aspects of the parliamentary diplomacy of the MMPWS concerning the Western Sahara conflict. Second, it addresses the interrelations between the different levels of action (local, national and international). Third, it analyses the discourse on identity issues of nine MMPWS interviewed in May and June 2015.

Laura Feliu, María Angustias Parejo

Chapter 11. Changes in Moroccan Public Policies in the Western Sahara and International Law: Adjustments to a New Social Context in Dakhla

Abstract

The significant changes in the social structure of Western Saharan cities over the past three decades have had a significant influence on the problems that Moroccan authorities face in their public policies and on those who benefit from those policies. I analyse these changes by focussing on two policies in particular: (I) electoral policy and (II) housing policy. This study reveals changes in local power structures and in the types of groups who have benefited from national public policies in the territory. These changes give the impression that there is progressive involvement in politics (with the vote and the distribution of basic goods by the authorities) from a sector of society that is today the majority: the immigrant population or “settlers”. Their inclusion, however, conflicts with international norms about non-autonomous territories.

Victoria Veguilla

National and Local Levels (2): Saharawi Resistance and Identity

Frontmatter

Chapter 12. Memory and Resistance: A Historical Account of the First “Intifadas” and Civil Organizations in the Territory of Western Sahara

Abstract

The annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco and the administrative measures imposed on the territory caused various collective memory omissions. This chapter analyses the ways in which the Sahrawi people have come to break the silence and how a cultural resistance based on elements of traditional social organization and re-invented opposition strategies has been created. Materials from Spanish historical archives and around 150 interviews conducted in Western Sahara in 2008–09 and 2011–12 shed light on different forms of Sahrawi resistance—micro-resistance—which have been present in the Western Sahara territory since the final stage of the Spanish colonial rule and the Moroccan takeover, although they have only become visible for the outside world and achieved an impact on the global level and the Moroccan state/national level over the last two decades. The recovered and examined data disclose a collective history that has been waiting to be articulated for decades.

Claudia Barona, Joseph Dickens-Gavito

Chapter 13. Western Saharan and Southern Moroccan Sahrawis: National Identity and Mobilization

Abstract

One little-addressed issue in studies about Western Sahara is the position of the Sahrawis from southern Morocco and their participation in the independence movement. In recent years, the relocation of the protest initiative to the occupied zones has highlighted the important involvement of this population in Sahrawi collective action. This is not a spillover from the disputed territory, an expansion of the nationalist camp or even a new phenomenon; rather it is a dimension of this movement that has always existed. For the time being, this nationalist mobilization uses the same organizations and has no differentiating discourse. However, the distinctiveness of this Sahrawi nationalism poses significant challenges for both the Moroccan state and the Sahrawi national liberation movement.

Isaías Barreñada

Chapter 14. The View from Tindouf: Western Saharan Women and the Calculation of Autochthony

Abstract

The International Court of Justice in the Western Sahara case determined autochthony, an anthropological and legal term, to legitimate and write the “local” Self into its indigenous historiography and sovereign territory. Simultaneously, the Sahrawi vernacular body and voice were forbidden in the court’s representations while the regional and global Other adjudicated upon it. This anthropological chapter looks out from Tindouf as just one indigenous “locale” and illuminates the web of many nomadic milieux across the region, to help explain how “the Sahrawi” has come about. Ethnographic insights into kinship demonstrate how nomadic social networks grounded in the “strength of weak ties” and women’s political architecture have maintained a resolute resolve for self-determination among a widely cast geographical assemblage of different tribes. While the war drags on in the regional and global domains, Sahrawi customary asabiyah continually generates ever-wider webs of kinship ties and strengthens ideas of self-determination at the local level.

Konstantina Isidoros

Chapter 15. “For Us, Parliament Is a Tool for Liberation”: Elections as an Opportunity for a Transterritorial Sahrawi Population

Abstract

Elections are important tools not only of governance but also of nation-building and international diplomacy. This chapter examines how elections can be adapted for such goals in the absence of a conventional nation-state setting. The Polisario Front liberation movement for Western Sahara organizes elections in which Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, as well as Sahrawis living in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and the Sahrawi diaspora, can vote to elect a range of officers. Drawing on anthropological approaches to elections as cultural and moral events, this chapter examines some wider effects of these elections. Sahrawi voters imagine themselves and act as a transterritorial community of nationalists. The structuring of electoral constituencies projects an idealized vision of the Sahrawi body politic. Holding elections facilitates connections with local, national and international audiences. Finally, Sahrawis’ frequent rehearsals of their existence as a national electorate may reinforce their expectations of popular consultation in any solution to the conflict.

Alice Wilson

Conclusion

Frontmatter

Chapter 16. Conclusion

Abstract

The present global, regional and Moroccan state/national dynamics surrounding the Western Sahara issue point to the continuation of the “conflict” and the persistence of the status quo as in the past decades. At the global level, Western Sahara did not benefit from the post-Cold War momentum in terms of the resolution of conflicts dating from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s across the globe. Since then, this conflict has suffered from a relative irrelevance for big powers, which endows the latter’s behaviour with an instrumental character—in subordination to more important goals—and a certain level of “unpredictability”. At the regional level, the post-colonial rivalry between Algeria and Morocco has persisted in spite of the opportunities for convergence created by the end of the Cold War and even increased in the context of the US-led War on Terror. At the level of Moroccan state/national politics, the Western Sahara issue remains essential for the monarchy to solidify its rule, preserve its nationalist credentials and prevent any political interference from the military.

Francesco Cavatorta

Backmatter

Titel: Global, Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara’s Protracted Decolonization
herausgegeben von: Raquel Ojeda-Garcia
Irene Fernández-Molina
Victoria Veguilla
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-349-95035-5
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95034-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95035-5