{"id":436,"date":"2011-12-22T18:34:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T18:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/?p=436"},"modified":"2011-12-22T18:34:45","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T18:34:45","slug":"london-review-of-books-libya-western-sahara-hugh-roberts-hallucinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/index.php\/2011\/12\/22\/london-review-of-books-libya-western-sahara-hugh-roberts-hallucinations\/","title":{"rendered":"London Review of Books: Gaddafi and Western Sahara"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his critique of the Nato intervention in Libya<\/a>, Hugh Roberts spares a few moments for Gaddafi\u2019s role in the politics of the Maghreb. I find it astonishing that he never mentions the disputed territory of the Western Sahara. Gaddafi was an early, erratic supporter of the Western Saharan liberation movement, Polisario, for reasons of his own, before Algeria backed their cause in 1975. Three decades later, Western Sahara is still a major obstacle to good relations between Rabat and Algiers. But Roberts circumvents the issue by asserting that Moroccan-Algerian relations have been hamstrung by territorial rivalry over neighbouring Mauritania. The gravel wastes of northern Mauritania, briefly contested in the 1970s, have little to do with the destructive conflict over a botched decolonisation of Western Sahara. Independence remains the key issue in this former Spanish colony, overrun by Morocco in 1975. Passionate in his opposition to the Nato assault on Gaddafi\u2019s regime, Roberts is a stickler for international law. On Western Sahara, he has taken a realpolitik stance since the 1980s, unimpressed by the legitimacy of the Saharans\u2019 case in the face of force majeure. So which is it to be, international law or realpolitik?<\/p>\n

Jacob Mundy
\nColgate University, Hamilton, New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob Mundy responds to Hugh Roberts’ essay “Who Said Gaddafi Had to Go?”<\/a> in the London Review of Books<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,67,69,132],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-gaddafi","tag-libya","tag-london-review-of-books","tag-western-sahara"],"yoast_head":"\nLondon Review of Books: Gaddafi and Western Sahara - Western Sahara: War, Nationalism & Conflict Irresolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/index.php\/2011\/12\/22\/london-review-of-books-libya-western-sahara-hugh-roberts-hallucinations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"London Review of Books: Gaddafi and Western Sahara - 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