The Western Sahara Conflict as the Chicken and Egg of the Non-Maghreb

Abstract

The dispute over Western Sahara may be characterised as a protracted decolonisation and territorial-sovereignty conflict with a regional dimension, which has long determined the course of international relations and foreign policies in the Maghreb. Following a series of developments triggered by the United Nations’ (UN) demand for the decolonisation of the territory known at the time as Spanish Sahara – including the birth in 1973 of the Polisario Front as a national liberation movement representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, Morocco’s judicial and diplomatic offensive to assert its claim over the territory, and Spain’s delayed announcement of plans to hold a referendum on self-determination (1964-75) – the combination of the Spanish U-turn enshrined in the Madrid Accords and the Moroccan Green March gave rise to the foreign occupation of this non-self-governing territory and a conflict that remains unresolved to this day.