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# Western Sahara: War, Nationalism & Conflict Irresolution

Western Sahara

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## Posts

- [Blog](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/blog/) - Also search the Archive of all Professor Stephen Zunes's writings, interviews and lectures on the Western Sahara, and his complete Archive of nearly 1000 published articles (1989-2024), interviews and lectures on the Middle East, Nonviolent Social Movements and Change, and Western Sahara at StephenZunes.org. Please share site links widely by email, text and apps below:
- ["Lo cierto es que no sé qué dirección tomará la Administración", reconoce Mundy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2021/05/20/lo-cierto-es-que-no-se-que-direccion-tomara-la-administracion-reconoce-mundy/) - La primera opción que tiene Biden es dar marcha atrás y volver al "statu quo" antes de Trump, es decir, no reconocer la soberanía marroquí sobre los territorios que ocupa desde 1975 en la antigua colonia española del Sáhara Occidental, considerada por la ONU un territorio no autónomo en proceso de autodeterminación. Otra opción sería mantener el reconocimiento a la soberanía marroquí, pero condicionarlo a progresos diplomáticos para resolver el conflicto, explicó a Efe Jacob Mundy, profesor de la Universidad Colgate en el estado de Nueva York. El tercer escenario sería mantener la proclamación presidencial de Trump, pero no tomar ninguna decisión que la "haga realidad". Por ejemplo, Biden podría negarse a destinar fondos a la apertura de un consulado estadounidense en el Sáhara Occidental, tal y como había anunciado su antecesor. "Lo cierto es que no sé qué dirección tomará la Administración", reconoce Mundy.
- [Western Sahara’s moment in the sun – IRIN News](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2016/04/14/627/) - As Jacob Mundy, an assistant professor at Colgate University and an expert on the conflict pointed out, Morocco has positioned itself as a key ally of Saudi Arabia and the West in North Africa, sharing intelligence with the United States and even playing host to at least one of the CIA’s controversial black sites. This brings the US closely into line with France, already staunchly on Morocco’s in the dispute. “Anytime Morocco is feeling the pressure on Western Sahara, they probably find ways of making themselves very useful to the United States,” Mundy explained.
- [El Watan (Algiers) : « Le Maroc est la cause de l’impasse actuelle »](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2016/04/14/el-watan-algiers-le-maroc-est-la-cause-de-limpasse-actuelle/) - Inscrit depuis 1966 sur la liste des territoires non autonomes — et donc éligible à l’application de la résolution 1514 de l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU portant déclaration sur l’octroi de l’indépendance aux pays et peuples coloniaux —, le Sahara occidental est la dernière colonie en Afrique, occupé depuis 1975 par le Maroc qui est soutenu par la France. Jacob Mundy, enseignant à l’université Colgate de New York, explique les raisons des récentes attaques dirigées par le Maroc contre le secrétaire général de l’ONU.
- [Vice News : Morocco Boots UN Diplomats Over Western Sahara Spat](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2016/03/18/vice-news-morocco-boots-un-diplomats-over-western-sahara-spat/) - For the secretary-general, these tensions appear to have helped fuel continued frustration towards Morocco and the visit may have been an attempt to show Western Sahara that the international body has not forgotten about the issue, according to Jacob Mundy, a political science professor and North Africa expert at Colgate University. As Mundy noted, the visit was unusual in the fact that Ban only met with one side. "It's kind of unprecedented, just on its face, only going to meet with one side of the conflict," he said. "The secretariat has never visibly shown this much frustration before and if it was... it never would have made its frustration public."
- [«La Marche verte est la façade civile d’une invasion militaire»](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/11/16/la-marche-verte-est-la-facade-civile-dune-invasion-militaire/) - Au grand dam des populations sahraouies représentées par le Front Polisario dès 1973, le Sahara occidental, ancienne colonie espagnole, est colonisé en 1975 par le Maroc. Hassan II y envoie, le 6 novembre, des Marocains pour l’envahir, avant de lancer une offensive armée contre les Sahraouis. L’attaque marocaine est même appuyée par des bombardements massifs. Le peuple sahraoui lutte depuis plus de 40 ans pour son droit à l’autodétermination. Dans les territoires sahraouis occupés par le Maroc, la vie des Sahraouis est marquée par la répression et le harcèlement constants. Le Sahara occidental est aujourd’hui la dernière colonie d’Afrique. Spécialiste des conflits au Maghreb, Jacob Mundy de l’université Colgate (New York) explique le stratagème mis en place par le roi Hassan II pour accaparer ce territoire.
- [Guardian reviews Simon Brann Thorpe's collection of photographs "Toy Soldiers," with an introductory essay by Jacob Mundy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/06/29/guardian-reviews-simon-brann-thorpes-collection-of-photographs-toy-soldiers-with-an-introductory-essay-by-jacob-mundy/) - The result is a series of images that show the absurdity of war, but also the plight of the individual soldier locked into a conflict that must seem endless. “It is difficult to look at Simon Brann Thorpe’s Toy Soldiers,” writes Mundy, “and not dwell on the powerful metaphor these photographs literally play with. Fighters in the Western Saharan liberation movement have become playthings. But whose toys are they, and what is the game being played?” These are the kinds of questions that echo through this odd, and oddly powerful, conceptual meditation on war – and war photography.
- [Open Democracy on Véronique Dudouet's "Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation"](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/05/27/review-of-veronique-dudouets-civil-resistance-and-conflict-transformation/) - Dudouet has found authors to write on eight prominent contemporary cases in which movements have switched from armed to nonviolent methods: Western Sahara, West Papua, Palestine, South Africa, Chiapas, Colombia, Egypt and Nepal. Few of these stories are known to the wider public. Perhaps only the struggles in Palestine and South Africa are familiar through the mass media, and even in these cases the transition from armed to nonviolent methods is little known. So here is a valuable compendium of insights about a crucially important process that has escaped the notice of scholars and members of the public alike.
- [Hillary Clinton's ties to Morocco's phosphate industry and the implications for Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/05/14/stephen-zunes-on-hillary-clintons-ties-to-moroccos-phosphate-industry-and-the-implications-for-western-sahara/) - For example, the Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), a Moroccan government-owned mining company that controls one of the world's largest phosphate mines in the occupied Western Sahara, is the primary donor to the Clinton Global Initiative conference last week in Marrakech. This and other support provided to the Clinton Foundation by OCP -- now totaling as much as $5 million -- has raised some eyebrows, given Hillary Clinton's efforts as secretary of state to push the Obama administration to recognize Morocco's illegal annexation of the territory through a dubious "autonomy" plan promoted by King Mohammed VI that would deny the people of Western Sahara the option of independence as international law requires.
- [Review of Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh's "The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam, and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival"](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/04/06/review-of-elena-fiddian-qasmiyehs-the-ideal-refugees-gender-islam-and-the-sahrawi-politics-of-survival/) - The Ideal Refugees claims to make gender visible in the politics of Sahrawi refugee survival, but it does so at the expense of making the geopolitical conditions of the Sahrawis’ dispossession, exile, and brute refugeeness invisible. In The Ideal Refugees, the invisibility of the larger forces acting upon the Sahrawi refugees is evidenced in the fact that France and the United States, the two states that have done the most to determine the lives of Sahrawis through their support of Morocco on the UN Security Council, are mentioned so rarely as to be omitted from the book’s index. The connections between the conflict’s “high” politics of international diplomacy and the “low” politics of refugee survival are plainly obvious to most dedicated observers of the conflict. But all we get in The Ideal Refugees is the low politics of camp life vis-à-vis the entrenched rule of Polisario and the naiveté of solidarity activists.
- [Washington Post article and video on struggle of Western Sahara's refugees](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2015/01/02/washington-post-article-and-video-on-struggle-of-western-saharas-refugees/) - Could war come back to Western Sahara? Some of Algeria’s Sahrawi refugees think so By Whitney Shefte December 31, 2014 Tumana Ahmed is tired of dreaming of a homeland she has never seen. The 28-year-old was born in the desolate desert of western Algeria, in a refugee camp that was supposed to be temporary. Only
- [Review of "Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics," ed. by Anouar Boukhars and Jacques Roussellier](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/10/21/review-of-perspectives-on-western-sahara-myths-nationalisms-and-geopolitics-ed-by-anouar-boukhars-and-jacques-roussellier/) - Beware academic volumes that bear this disclaimer: “The views expressed are those of the authors alone.” Perspectives on Western Sahara, edited by Anouar Boukhars and Jacques Roussellier, contains several chapters in which this caveat is made. And for good reason: Perspectives on Western Sahara is primarily a political text, one backed by well-researched, if sometimes problematic, accounts of the conflict’s local, regional, and global dynamics. Most of the contributors have backgrounds in government, consulting, and think tanks; the others have formal academic positions. Several are well known for their defense of Morocco’s position on Western Sahara; others seem to have been recruited or shanghaied into the cause with little to no research or publication background on the issue. One of the chapters, an analysis of United States foreign policy towards the conflict, is even authored by two former US Foreign Service Officers who now work as lobbyists for Morocco, Edward Gabriel and Robert Holley. Boukhars and Roussellier’s collection also serves as a pro-Moroccan response to Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, which this reviewer coauthored with Stephen Zunes in 2010. ...read more Citation: Jacob Mundy, "Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics ed. by Anouar Boukhars and Jacques Roussellier (review)," The Middle East Journal, 68(4), Autumn 2014, pp. 653-654 | 10.1353/mej.2014.0094
- [Recent analysis looks at role of international oil corporations and the Western Sahara dispute](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/09/29/recent-analysis-looks-at-role-of-international-oil-corporations-and-the-western-sahara-dispute/) - Middle East Eye and Middle East Economic Survey have examined the coming oil crisis in Western Sahara.
- [Waiting for Disruption: The Western Sahara Stalemate](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/09/16/waiting-for-disruption-the-western-sahara-stalemate/) - The Western Sahara conflict is fast approaching its 40th anniversary with no end in sight. A web of geopolitical interests keeps the conflict in a permanent state of limbo. At the heart of this web is the U.N. Security Council, which has managed the conflict since the late 1980s. The council has been historically reticent to take dramatic action to resolve the dispute and remains so today. Though there has been “peace” in Western Sahara since 1991 when a cease-fire came into effect, all efforts to reconcile Morocco’s claim of sovereignty against the local population’s right to self-determination have failed. The status quo thus seems indefinitely sustainable. Unless the conflict takes a sudden turn for the worse, it is unlikely that the international community will make the tough choices necessary to achieve a lasting solution. Therein lies the paradox of the Western Sahara peace process: The peace process now exists to contain the conflict, but only a crisis will save Western Sahara.
- [Western Sahara: nonviolent resistance as a last resort](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/09/08/western-sahara-nonviolent-resistance-as-a-last-resort/) - A chapter by Stephen Zunes and Jacob Mundy from Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation: Transitions from Armed to Nonviolent Struggle, edited by Véronique Dudouet. Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution, 2014. This book investigates the decision-making process, rationale and determining factors which underlie the strategic shifts of armed movements from violent to nonviolent resistance. The revival of global interest in the phenomenon of nonviolent struggle since the 2011 Arab Spring offers a welcome opportunity to revisit the potential of unarmed resistance as an alternative pathway out of armed conflicts, in cases where neither military (or counter-insurgency) nor negotiated solutions have succeeded. This volume brings together academics from various disciplinary traditions and offers a wide range of case studies – including South Africa, Palestine and Egypt – through which to view the changes from violence to nonviolence within self-determination, revolutionary or pro-democracy struggles. While current historiography focuses on armed conflicts and their termination through military means or negotiated settlements, this book is a first attempt to investigate the nature and the drivers of transitions from armed strategies to unarmed methods of contentious collective action on the part of non-state conflict actors. The text concentrates in particular on the internal and relational factors which underpin the decision-making process, from a change of leadership and a pragmatic re-evaluation of the goals and means of insurgency in the light of evolving inter-party power dynamics, to the search for new local or international allies and the cross-border emulation or diffusion of new repertoires of action. This book will be of interest to students of security studies, peace and conflict studies, political sociology and IR in general.
- [Book review in International Journal of Middle East Studies](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/07/20/book-review-in-international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/) - Hugh Roberts (2014). Review of 'Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution' International Journal of Middle East Studies, 46, pp 418-420. doi:10.1017/S0020743814000324.
- [Bringing the tribe back in? The Western Sahara dispute, ethno-history, and the imagineering of minority conflicts in the Arab world](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2014/03/20/bringing-the-tribe-back-in-the-western-sahara-dispute-ethno-history-and-the-imagineering-of-minority-conflicts-in-the-arab-world/) - An essay by Jacob Mundy from the new book Multiculturalism and Minority Rights in the Arab World (Oxford University Press 2014), edited by Will Kymlicka and Eva Pföstl. Since the Arab Spring, Arab states have become the new front line in the struggle for democratization and for open societies. As the experience of other regions has shown, one of the most significant challenges facing democratization relates to minority rights. This book explores how minority claims are framed and debated in the region, and in particular, how political actors draw upon, re-interpret, or resist both the new global discourses of minority rights and more local traditions and practices of co-existence. The contributors examine a range of pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial factors that shape contemporary minority politics in the Arab world, and that encumber the reception of international norms of multiculturalism. These factors include the contested legacies of Islamic doctrines of the `dhimmi' and the Ottoman millet system, colonial-era divide and rule strategies, and post-colonial Arab nation-building. While these legacies complicate struggles for minority rights, they do not entail an `Arab exceptionalism' to global trends to multiculturalism. This volume explores a number of openings for new more pluralistic conceptions of nationhood and citizenship, and suggests that minority politics at its best can serve as a vehicle for a more general transformative politics, supporting a broader culture of democracy and human rights, and challenging older authoritarian, clientalistic, or patriarchal political tendencies. The chapters include both broad theoretical and historical perspectives as well as more focused case studies (including Western Sahara/Morocco, Algeria, Israel/Palestine; Sudan; United Arab Emirates, and Iraq). Readership: Scholars and students of political theory, international relations, political philosophy, international law, human rights, ethnic studies, and Middle East politics.
- [On recent Moroccan-Algerian tensions over Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/11/05/on-recent-moroccan-algerian-tensions-over-western-sahara/) - A man is currently in police custody in Morocco's commercial capital, Casablanca, after tearing down the Algerian flag from its embassy in the city. The man was protesting against comments made on behalf of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in relation to Western Sahara. Bouteflika reportedly said that Morocco had committed human rights violations against the people of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Morocco illegally occupied Western Sahara in 1975. It is the largest disputed land mass in the world. RFI spoke to expert Jacob Mundy on Morocco's reaction to withdrawing its ambassador.
- [Daily Beast article quotes Jacob Mundy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/10/22/daily-beast-article-quotes-jacob-mundy/) - With modern communication tools available to the refugees, “there is no mystery anymore about what goes on in the camps, and what goes on in the disputed territory,” said Jacob Mundy, an assistant professor at Colgate University and co-author of Western Sahara: War Nationalism & Conflict Irresolution. “The fact that so many people choose to stay in the camps probably speaks more to Morocco’s failure to win the hearts and minds of the Sahrawi people.”
- [Guardian Weekly: Role of women in Western Sahara conflict](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/07/16/guardian-weekly-role-of-women-in-western-sahara-conflict/) - As dusk enveloped the salmon-pink houses of Laayoune, the brightly coloured robes of women stood out in a mass of protesters in the centre of the capital of Western Sahara chanting for independence from Morocco. While other African colonies threw off occupiers one by one, this desert expanse on the continent's north-western coast remains a disputed territory controlled primarily by next-door Morocco and locked in a nearly 40–year struggle for the right to choose its fate. Unusually for a Muslim society, women play a prominent role in Western Sahara's independence movement.
- [Washington Post article and video discusses role of women, political impasse in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/07/08/washington-post-article-and-video-discusses-role-of-women-political-impasse-in-western-sahara/) - While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent’s northwestern coast remains a disputed territory controlled primarily by next-door Morocco and locked in a nearly 40-year-old forgotten struggle for the right to choose its fate. And in a Muslim-majority region where women are often marginalized from politics, women have taken an unusually prominent role in Western Sahara’s independence movement.
- [New Boston Globe analysis on Western Sahara quotes Jacob Mundy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/06/16/new-boston-globe-analysis-on-western-sahara-quotes-jacob-mundy/) - Politically, Western Sahara is a unifying issue within Morocco; analysts worry that splitting it off could undermine the monarchy, and threaten a pillar of stability in a volatile region. Polisario’s socialist rhetoric and Algerian ties have not won them friends in the West, either. For the West, “the status quo is much more tolerable than the frightening futures that might result from prioritizing a solution over stability,” Mundy said.
- [Stephen Zunes joins Jadaliyya roundtable on Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/06/10/stephen-zunes-joins-jadaliyya-roundtable-on-western-sahara/) - Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and block the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply allow human rights monitoring in the occupied country. So now, at least as important as nonviolent resistance by Sahrawis, is the potential of nonviolent action by the citizens of France, the United States, and other countries that enable Morocco to maintain its occupation. Such campaigns played a major role in forcing Australia, Great Britain, and the United States to end their support for Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, finally enabling the former Portuguese colony to become free. The only realistic hope to end the occupation of Western Sahara, resolve the conflict, and save the vitally important post-World War II principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, which forbid any country from expanding its territory through military force, may be a similar campaign by global civil society.
- [Jacob Mundy quoted in USA Today piece on Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/06/10/jacob-mundy-quoted-in-usa-today-piece-on-western-sahara/) - "Morocco is a very close ally of France and the United States; Paris and Washington don't want to jeopardize their excellent security and economic cooperation with Rabat, which could be the cost of forcing peace in Western Sahara," says Jacob Mundy, assistant professor at Colgate University and author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution. "It's not going to be resolved until there is a crisis. Something major has to happen to shake things up."
- [Interview with Jacob Mundy in "El Watan," leading Algerian francophone daily](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2013/05/22/interview-with-jacob-mundy-in-el-watan-leading-algerian-francophone-daily/) - Le peuple sahraoui a célébré, hier, le 40e anniversaire du déclenchement de sa lutte armée contre l’occupation marocaine, après avoir commémoré, le 10 mai courant, la création du Front Polisario (10 mai 1973). Spécialiste du conflit, Jacob Mundy, actuellement professeur à Colgate University (New York), décrypte pour nous les enjeux de la dernière réunion du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU consacrée au dossier sahraoui. Celui-ci (le Conseil de sécurité) a, rappelle-t-on, adopté le 25 avril dernier la résolution 2099 dans laquelle il a réitéré son appel à «une solution politique juste et durable acceptée par les deux parties et qui garantit le droit du peuple sahraoui à l’autodétermination».
- [Stephen Zunes remembers George McGovern, author of the foreword to Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Resolution](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/10/23/stephen-zunes-remembers-george-mcgovern/) - His support for international law and self-determination was rooted in his taking part in the war on fascism. In his foreword to my most recent book, which analyzes the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, he noted how that experience helped teach him that the right of self-determination “is one of the most fundamental rights of all” and that “no government should get away with denying that right by invading, occupying and annexing another national and oppressing its people.” He faulted successive administrations of both parties for failing to uphold such fundamental principles of international law.
- [The Reality of Western Sahara : A rebuttal on accusations concerning the Polisario and Moroccan occupation](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/08/02/the-reality-of-western-sahara-a-rebuttal-on-accusations-concerning-the-polisario-and-moroccan-occupation/) - Earlier this year, Global Post ran an article by Jordan Paul, executive director of the Moroccan American Center for Policy, a registered foreign agent for the Moroccan government, which funds, supervises, and coordinates the group’s activities. The article contained a series of demonstrably false claims attempting to rationalize for Morocco’s illegal occupation of its southern neighbor, the country of Western Sahara.
- [Divesting from All Occupations](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/07/28/divesting-from-all-occupations/) - The Palestinian solidarity struggle would be considerably strengthened if, instead of calling for divestment specifically from companies supporting the Israeli occupation, the call was for divestment from companies supporting all foreign belligerent occupations. Morocco is a predominantly Arab Muslim country. By including Western Sahara along with Palestine, the movement would avoid the accusation that it is unfairly singling out Israel. After all, it would be targeting all illegal occupations, not just one.
- [Moroccan Settlers in Western Sahara: Colonists or Fifth Column?](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/06/25/moroccan-settlers-in-western-sahara-colonists-or-fifth-column/) - in The Arab World Geographer 15(2), Summer 2012: 95-126 Since assuming control of the former Spanish Sahara in 1976, Morocco has encouraged between 200 000 and 300 000 of its citizens to settle there. As a result of this settlement campaign, combined with the mass exodus of nearly half of the indigenous Sahrawi population in the immediate aftermath of Rabat's 1975 invasion, Moroccan settlers now constitute the majority population in occupied Western Sahara. Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara continually posts some of the highest voter turnouts in Moroccan elections; however, Rabat rejected a 2003 UN peace proposal that would have allowed both Moroccan settlers and native Western Saharans to vote for independence or formal union with Morocco in a final status referendum. The Western Saharan independence movement's acceptance of this proposal and, more importantly, Morocco's rejection of it, despite the clear demographic hegemony of Moroccan settlers in the territory, has led observers to speculate as to the rationale that drove Morocco to reject the UN plan. This article argues that a possible factor—largely unknown elsewhere, but likely very well understood by Moroccan authorities—is the ethnic composition of the settler population, which may be predominantly Sahrawi. To establish this as a tenable hypothesis, the author first backgrounds the Western Sahara conflict and the basic parameters of its ethno-political geography, then sketches the broad patterns of Moroccan settlement in occupied Western Sahara and pays closer attention to the ethnic aspects of Rabat's settlement drive. Finally, the article examines the role of Moroccan settlers in the Western Sahara peace process during the 1990s and after, leading up to Morocco's rejection of the 2003 UN plan.
- [The Western Sahara Peace Process: Tragedy or Farce?](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/05/10/the-western-sahara-peace-process-tragedy-or-farce/) - At the end of every April, a small drama plays out in the UN Security Council. This is when the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO, its French acronym) comes up for its annual renewal. Western Sahara — Africa’s last colony according to the United Nations — is largely ignored by the Security Council the other eleven months of the year. The Secretary-General has a Person Envoy working on the case, former US Ambassador Christopher Ross, one of the great Arabophone diplomats of his age. The mandate given to Ambassador Ross, to achieve a mutually acceptable political solution that will afford Western Sahara its long denied right to self-determination, is a farce and everyone knows it.
- [UN Security Council hypocrisy on Syria, Israel and Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2012/02/09/un-security-council-hypocrisy-on-syria-israel-and-western-sahara/) - As the Syrian regime continues to slaughter unarmed civilians, the major powers at the United Nations continue to put their narrow geopolitical agenda ahead of international humanitarian law. Just as France shields Morocco from accountability for its ongoing occupation and repression in Western Sahara and just as the United States shields Israel from having to live up to its obligations under international humanitarian law, Russia and China have used their permanent seats on the UN Security Council to protect the Syrian regime from accountability for its savage repression against its own citizens. Although the joint Russian and Chinese veto of the resolution is inexcusable, the self-righteous reaction by U.S. officials betrays hypocrisy on a grand scale and fails to take into account a series of policy blunders that have contributed to the tragic impasse.
- [Jacob Mundy quoted in BBC article on Sahrawi resistance in occupied Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/12/23/jacob-mundy-quoted-in-bbc-article-on-sahrawi-resistance-in-occupied-western-sahara/) - "Compared with the desperate efforts to give South Sudan independence, the French and the US are very comfortable [with the status quo in Western Sahara]," says Jacob Mundy, a Western Sahara expert and assistant professor at Colgate University in the US. He says that for there to be a solution, "there would have to be a significant change in the basic dynamics of the conflict... whether it was the collapse of the Moroccan regime, the collapse of the Algerian regime or the collapse of the Polisario". Read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16186928
- [London Review of Books: Gaddafi and Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/12/22/london-review-of-books-libya-western-sahara-hugh-roberts-hallucinations/) - Jacob Mundy responds to Hugh Roberts' essay "Who Said Gaddafi Had to Go?" in the London Review of Books.
- [Review in African Studies Review](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/12/10/wswnci-reviewed-in-african-studies-review/) - Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution has been very positively reviewed in the flagship journal of the African Studies Association, African Studies Review. The reviewer, Gregory White, Professor of Government at Smith College, calls it "the definitive book on the Western Sahara."
- [The dynamics of repression and resistance : Sahrawi nationalist activism in the Moroccan occupied Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/10/06/the-dynamics-of-repression-and-resistance-sahrawi-nationalist-activism-in-the-moroccan-occupied-western-sahara/) - in Pambazuka News, Issue 551 (Special Issue: "Western Sahara's struggle for freedom" edited by Konstantina Isidoros), 6 October 2011), http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76904 (This paper was originally presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the International Studies Association in San Francisco.)
- [Obama's Middle East speech elides over Moroccan aggression in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/05/23/obamas-middle-east-speech-elides-over-moroccan-agression-in-western-sahara/) - Obama's claim that the United States "will not tolerate aggression across borders" continues to be somewhat selective given ongoing US support for the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara and support for Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. Read the rest at the Huffington Post
- [The New York Times' Western Sahara geography problem](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/03/09/the-new-york-times-western-sahara-problem/) - Last week, the New York Times ran an article on Arab lobbying in Washington, DC. While the context of that article focused on the current uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, the Western Sahara conflict received an indirect and odd mention. What was odd about the NYT article was the way it framed the motive for Morocco's efforts: 'Morocco spent more than $3 million on Washington lobbyists, much of it aimed at gaining an edge in its border dispute with Algeria, while Algeria countered by spending $600,000 itself.'
- [Thanks to Western Sahara, Morocco leads Arab world in number of US lobbying contracts](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/03/08/thanks-to-western-sahara-morocco-leads-arab-world-in-number-of-us-lobbying-contracts/) - Read the rest at the Sunlight Foundation: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/02/01/the-arab-worlds-2010-lobbying-contacts/
- [Western Sahara's 48 Hours of Rage](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2011/01/30/western-saharas-48-hours-of-rage/) - What had begun roughly a month earlier as a non-violent protest camp set up by Sahrawi youths to voice their feelings of economic marginalization under Moroccan occupation quickly transformed that day -- November 8, 2010 -- into the most violent 48 hours witnessed by Western Sahara since a UN ceasefire took hold in 1991. The protests in Laayoune were far larger and more destructive to property than the Sahrawi intifada of May 2005 or the events in 1999, when Moroccan police forcibly dismantled a similar Sahrawi economic protest camp in Laayoune. One of the many victims of the November 8 violence could be the hope that Sahrawi nationalists and the Moroccan government can share power under an autonomy scheme in Western Sahara. Read the rest at Middle East Report: http://www.merip.org/mer/mer257/western-saharas-48-hours-rage
- [Stephen Zunes on KPFA's "Africa Today" discussing Western Sahara and elections in Egypt](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/12/20/stephen-zunes-on-kpfas-africa-today-discussing-western-sahara-and-elections-in-egypt/) - Africa Today - December 20, 2010 at 7:00pmClick to listen (or download)
- [WikiLeaks Cables on Western Sahara Show Role of Ideology in State Department](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/12/08/wikileaks-cables-on-western-sahara-show-role-of-ideology-in-state-department/) - Over the years, as part of my academic research, I have spent many hours at the National Archives poring over diplomatic cables of the kind recently released by WikiLeaks. The only difference is that rather than being released after a 30+ year waiting period -- when the principals involved are presumably dead or in retirement and the countries in question have very different governments in power -- the WikiLeaks are a lot more recent, more relevant and, in some cases, more embarrassing as a result.
- [Upsurge in repression challenges nonviolent resistance in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/11/17/upsurge-in-repression-challenges-nonviolent-resistance-in-western-sahara/) - Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
- [On Moroccan crackdown in Western Sahara (video)](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/11/15/stephen-zunes-on-moroccan-crackdown-in-western-sahara/)
- [US leadership, not partisanship, desperately needed for peace in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/11/09/us-leadership-not-partisanship-desperately-needed-for-peace-in-western-sahara/) - Recently we made the case for a more active US role in the Western Sahara peace process, prompting a constructive response from former US diplomats Ambassador Edward Gabriel and Mr Robert Holley, who now work as lobbyists for the Kingdom of Morocco. In their posting, Gabriel and Holley agree that a strong US role is needed but they claim that we are proposing a solution based on a referendum with independence as an option. Nowhere in our recent article or even the previous one posted in the Middle East Channel did we suggest such a thing.
- [U.S. Middle East talks - a model for Western Sahara?](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/10/27/u-s-middle-east-talks-a-model-for-western-sahara/) - Coauthored with Anna Theofilopoulou The recent decision by the Obama administration to invite Israel and the Palestinian Authority to engage in serious negotiations over the Middle East conflict should be instructive for those interested in resolving one that seems almost as intractable -- the Western Sahara dispute. Key to this new effort in the Middle East conflict is (1) the U.S. is sponsoring and supporting the talks; (2) the U.S. has demanded that the two negotiate seriously, tackle the difficult subjects that have trounced previous attempts for resolution; and (3) the U.S. has given the two sides a one-year deadline. Though the fate of the Israel-Palestinian talks still hangs on a knife's edge, a similar attitude on the part of United States towards the Western Sahara dispute might pave the way to a durable solution to one of Africa's oldest conflicts.
- [Achieving Justice for Africa's East Timor: Australia book launch with Professor Roger Clark](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/10/11/achieving-justice-for-africas-east-timor-australia-book-launch-with-professor-roger-clark/) - 6:30PM WED 13 OCTOBER NEW INTERNATIONAL BOOKSHOP TRADES HALL, CNR VICTORIA & LYGON STS, CARLTON Entry: $5/ $2 concession. More info: (ph) 9662 3744, (email) nibs@nibs.org.au
- [Book review: Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Third Edition by Anthony Pazzanita](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/09/01/book-review-historical-dictionary-of-western-sahara-third-edition-by-anthony-pazzanita/) - in Journal of North African Studies 15/3 (2010): 417-421.
- [Why the UN won’t solve Western Sahara (until it becomes a crisis)](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/08/12/why-the-un-wont-solve-western-sahara-until-it-becomes-a-crisis/) - Co-authored with Anna Theofilopoulou. The Secretariat under Ban Ki-moon does not seem to recognize, or is unwilling to admit, the tough choices facing the UN venture in Western Sahara. As early as December 1995, Boutros Ghali admitted to the Council that the differences between the sides were irreconcilable and surprised everybody by admitting that he never believed that the referendum would happen. He understood that there were really only three options on the table: force a solution on the parties, withdraw or keep pressing for negotiations. Consistently, the Security Council chose number three. For the Obama administration, these choices remain fundamentally the same and dismal in their prospects. Read the Original: http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/12/why_the_un_won_t_solve_western_sahara_until_it_becomes_a_crisis in French Pourquoi l'ONU ne résoudra pas le Sahara occidental (jusqu'à ce que cela devienne une crise) http://apsoinfo.blogspot.com/2010/08/pourquoi-lonu-ne-resoudra-pas-le-sahara.html Translation by Amis du Peuple du Sahara Occidental, France in Spanish Por qué no resolverá la ONU el problema del Sáhara (hasta que se convierta en una crisis abierta) http://disenso.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/la-onu-ante-el-problema-del-sahara-occidental/ translation by Javier Villate
- [Cómo los EE. UU. y Marruecos se apoderaron del Sáhara Español](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/08/01/como-los-ee-uu-y-marruecos-se-apoderaron-del-sahara-espanol/) - En noviembre pasado [2006] se cumplieron 30 años de la crisis del Sáhara, desencadena cuando Marruecos presionó con éxito a Madrid, en el otoño de 1975, para expulsarlo de su colonia en el desierto. A pesar de los desmentidos de Estados Unidos, documentos secretos desclasificados revelan que el éxito del rey Hassan II fue posible gracias a la intervención de EE.UU. Translation by Luis Portillo. Original in English: http://mondediplo.com/2006/01/12asahara
- [Algeria and the Western Sahara Dispute](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/05/01/algeria-and-the-western-sahara-dispute/) - Since the outbreak of hostilities between Morocco and the Western Saharan nationalists of the Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro (Polisario) in late 1975, Algeria has been one of the most important actors in that conflict. While Algeria maintains no territorial claim on Western Sahara, it has consistently supported Polisario's drive for self-determination diplomatically, militarily, financially and morally. With only slight aberrations in its Western Sahara policy, Algeria's position in the Western Sahara conflict, as Polisario's most important backer, will likely hold the same general shape it has for over thirty years. There is no doubt, then, that understanding Algeria's role in the Western Sahara conflict is necessary for a complete historical appreciation of this neglected international issue and is also key to unlocking the peace process, which has stagnated over the last ten years. in Maghreb Center Journal, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2010: 14p.
- [U.S. Lawmakers Support Illegal Annexation](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/04/05/u-s-lawmakers-support-illegal-annexation/) - In yet another assault on fundamental principles of international law, a bipartisan majority of the Senate has gone on record calling on the United States to endorse Morocco's illegal annexation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony invaded by Moroccan forces in 1975 on the verge of its independence. In doing so, the Senate is pressuring the Obama administration to go against a series of UN Security Council resolutions, a landmark decision of the International Court of Justice, and the position of the African Union and most of the United States' closest European allies.
- [Legal analysis of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/04/01/legal-analysis-of-the-international-court-of-justice-icj-advisory-opinion-on-western-sahara/) - in Multilateralism and International Law with Western Sahara as a Case Study, Neville Botha, Michèle Olivier and Delarey van Tonder (eds), University of South Africa Press, 2010: 127-138.
- [Nonviolent Resistance to the ‘Other Occupation’: Western Sahara and Aminatou Haidar](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2010/01/16/nonviolent-resistance-to-the-other-occupation-western-sahara-and-aminatou-haidar/) - Book Chapter in Seeds Bearing Fruit: Pan African Peace Action for the 21st Century edited by Matt Meyer, Elavie Ndura, and Judith Atiri (Africa World Press 2010, forthcoming)
- [The Other Occupation: Western Sahara and the Case of Aminatou Haidar](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/12/05/the-other-occupation-western-sahara-and-the-case-of-aminatou-haidar/) - How long will U.S. authorities ignore the bleak realities of Moroccan repression?
- [A Tale of Two Human Rights Awardees](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/12/02/a-tale-of-two-human-rights-awardees/) - The annual Robert F. Kennedy Award ceremony took place at the White House this year for the first time in its 28-year history. Also for the first time, the president of the United States was there to honor the awardees. Such public support from the White House is in stark contrast with its silence on the fate of last year's winner, Aminatou Haidar, who is widely known as the Saharan Gandhi. Earlier in November, when she was returning from the United States after receiving the Civil Courage Award from the Train Foundation, Moroccan occupation authorities arrested and expelled Haidar from her homeland of Western Sahara.
- [The Nonviolent Struggle for Self-Determination in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/12/01/the-nonviolent-struggle-for-self-determination-in-western-sahara/) - Book chapter co-authored with Salka Barca in Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East edited by Maria Stephan (Palgrave Macmillan 2009).
- [Letter to Middle East Quarterly regarding Samuel Spector's "Western Sahara and the Self-Determination Debate"](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/11/19/letter-to-middle-east-quarterly-regarding-samuel-spectors-western-sahara-and-the-self-determination-debate/) - To the editor: The small group of scholars (and even smaller group of policy makers) interested in Western Sahara always appreciate new contributions to the discourse. However, they should at least be based in fact. Samuel J Spector’s article ‘Western Sahara and the Self-Determination Debate’ (Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2009, pp. 33-43) unfortunately fails this preliminary test.
- [Unlocking the Conflict in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/04/21/unlocking-the-conflict-in-western-sahara/) - At the end of April, the UN Security Council will have the opportunity to make the right choice or the safe choice when it renews the authorization for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The right choice would be to give the new UN envoy a mandate for peace. To do this, the Security Council would have to secure the commitment of both sides of the conflict, Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front, to power-sharing and self-determination. The safe choice, meanwhile, would be to continue under the weak mandate that contributed to the failure of the previous UN envoy. Published by Foreign Policy In Focus.
- [The Potomac-SAIS report on North Africa: Paid Analysis, Partisan Fear Mongering, Bad Policy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/04/15/the-potomac-sais-report-on-north-africa-paid-analysis-partisan-fear-mongering-bad-policy/) - At the end of March, a relatively obscure Washington, D.C., think tank called the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies published a report — in conjunction with the conflict management program of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University — arguing largely in support of Morocco’s 2007 autonomy proposal to solve the Western Sahara dispute. Framed in terms of US policy towards North Africa ('Why the Maghreb Matters'), the report is a thinly veiled effort to provide academic and political legitimacy to a one-sided view of the Western Sahara issue. It precipitated a detailed response from the Western Saharan Union of Writers and Journalists.
- [Letter to Middle East Policy Journal (re:  I.W. Zartman's "Time for a Solution in the Western Sahara Conflict")](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/04/15/letter-to-middle-east-policy-journal-re-i-w-zartmans-time-for-a-solution-in-the-western-sahara-conflict/) - To the Editors: I would like to bring to your attention some factual errors in a recent article authored by Professor I.W. Zartman (‘Time for a Solution in the Western Sahara Conflict’) and published in your journal’s Winter 2007 edition (Vol. XIV, No.4, pp. 178-183).
- [Out with the Old, in with the New: Western Sahara back to Square One?](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/03/01/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-western-sahara-back-to-square-one/) - The closing months of 2008 saw the end of a chapter and the opening of a new one in the Western Sahara conflict. Over the past three years, the peace process in Western Sahara, what the United Nations considers Africa’s last colony, was under the guidance of former Dutch diplomat Peter Van Walsum, who lost his position as UN Secretary General Personal Envoy at the end of August. Taking up where Van Walsum left off, the United States put forward the nomination of Ambassador Christopher Ross – one the US’s leading Middle East diplomats – to mediate the three decades old dispute between the occupying power, Morocco, and the Sahrawi pro-independence movement, the Polisario Front. in Mediterranean Politics, Volume 14, Number 1, March 2009 , pp. 115-122.
- [The Morocco-Polisario War for Western Sahara, 1975-1991](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2009/01/01/the-morocco-polisario-war-for-western-sahara-1975-1991/) - in Conflict and Insurgency in the Modern Middle East, Barry Rubin (ed.), Taylor and Francis, 2009: 209-231.
- [Haidar’s Struggle](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2008/10/09/haidars-struggle/) - Aminatou Haidar, a nonviolent activist from Western Sahara and a key leader in her nation's struggle against the 33-year-old U.S.-backed Moroccan occupation of her country, won this year's Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Unfortunately, given its role in making Morocco's occupation possible, the U.S. government has little enthusiasm for Haidar and the visibility her winning the RFK prize gives to the whole Western Sahara issue.
- [Negotiations in Western Sahara: UN's Last Chance?](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/12/01/negotiations-in-western-sahara-uns-last-chance/) - In recent months, the 32-year old Western Sahara conflict has generated almost unprecedented media coverage, all because of one de-contextualised fact. The pro-independence Polisario Front and the occupying Moroccan government met to discuss the disputed Britain sized territory in June and August 2007. Optimists pointed out that these were the first face-to-face meetings between the two antagonists since 2000. For pessimists, this author included (see Mundy, 2007) the mere existence of talks has come as a surprise. Nonetheless, the chances of a Polisario-Morocco agreement any time in the near future remains nil given that both sides are still attached to diametrically opposed positions. As always, Polisario continues to demand a self-determination referendum on independence for the native Sahrawi population of Western Sahara. Morocco, on the other hand, says independence is off the table, though it is willing to discuss an asymmetric power-sharing agreement (i.e., limited ‘autonomy’). in Review of African Political Economy, Volume 34 Number 114 (Dec 2007), pp730-735.
- [East Timor and Western Sahara: A Comparative Analysis on Prospects for Self-Determination](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/08/16/east-timor-and-western-sahara-a-comparative-analysis-on-prospects-for-self-determination/) - Book chapter in International Law and the Question of Western Sahara edited by in Karin Arts and Pedro Pinto Leite (International Platform of Jurists 2007).
- [How the “War on terror” undermined peace in Northwest Africa: The Western Sahara conflict after 9/11](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/08/01/how-the-war-on-terror-undermined-peace-in-northwest-africa-the-western-sahara-conflict-after-911/) - in Bulletin of the Association of Concerned African Scholars 77 (Summer 2007): 15-19.
- [The Future of Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/07/20/the-future-of-western-sahara/) - The Bush administration and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders have enthusiastically supported the Moroccan autonomy plan as a means of ending the conflict. But Morocco’s plan for autonomy falls well short of what is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It also poses a dangerous precedent that threatens the very foundation of the post-World War II international legal system.
- [More harm than good](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/07/18/more-harm-than-good/) - Morocco's proposed plan to grant Western Sahara autonomy is a poor solution to Africa's forgotten conflict.
- [Performing the nation, pre-figuring the state: the Western Saharan refugees, thirty years later](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/06/01/190/) - Recent social, economic and political changes in the Western Saharan refugee camps in southwest Algeria have import not only for the project of Western Saharan nationalism, but also for the ongoing peace process. These are examined through a background to the Western Sahara conflict, and an appraisal of the camps' internal processes of elite politics, self-management and recent post-war socio-economic change. in The Journal of Modern African Studies (2007), 45(2): 275-297 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0022278X07002546
- [Western Sahara: Against Autonomy](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/04/01/western-sahara-against-autonomy/) - In recent years, the Moroccan government has championed the idea of autonomy as a solution to its territorial dispute with pro-independence advocates over Western Sahara. Rabat has said it is willing to consider an autonomous, locally elected government in Western Sahara, which would have powers independent of the central government, albeit circumscribed by Morocco's ultimate sovereignty. The movement for Western Saharan statehood, on the other hand, has rejected autonomy. It continues to claim the right of self-determination, to be exercised through a final status referendum among the territory's indigenous ethnic Sahrawis.
- [Western Sahara between Autonomy and Intifada](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/03/16/western-sahara-between-autonomy-and-intifada/) - in Middle East Report online (16 March 2007): http://www.merip.org/mero/mero031607.
- [Colonial Formations in Western Saharan National Identity](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2007/01/01/colonial-formations-in-western-saharan-national-identity/) - This study attempts to interrogate existing constructions of the Sahrawi identity; to disentangle the various conceptions of Western Saharan nationalism by re-framing them, re-historicizing them and then re-examining them. The first step in this process is to provide both a theoretical and methodological backdrop. This is accomplished through a post-colonial critique of ethnography and historiography in the western Sahara, one that is deeply informed by recent cultural struggles in North Africa. Secondly, this study takes these sensibilities and applies them to a new description of the broad historical and social contexts upon which Spanish colonialism and Western Saharan nationalism were grounded. Finally, this study looks at the recent ethnogenesis of the Sahrawi people, concluding that the concept is the product of an interaction between two contending forces, colonialism and anti-colonialism (i.e., nationalism). Far from being an academic exercise with little practical import, this study aims to help observers of, and interveners in, the conflict better understand issues of identity in Western Sahara, which are, for the time being, still the The heart of it all. Citation: Mundy, Jacob Andrew. "Colonial Formations in Western Saharan National Identity." In North African Mosaic: A Cultural Reappraisal of Ethnic and Religious Minorities. Edited by Nabil Boudraa and Joseph Krause. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2007: 294-320.
- [Neutrality or complicity? The United States and the 1975 Moroccan takeover of the Spanish Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2006/09/03/neutrality-or-complicity-the-united-states-and-the-1975-moroccan-takeover-of-the-spanish-sahara/) - From mid-October to mid-November 1975, the Spanish Sahara was the site of a tense standoff between the governments of Spain and Morocco. By the end of the crisis, Madrid had abandoned its colony to Rabat, precipitating the now thirty-year-old conflict for Western Sahara between Morocco and the independence front Polisario. For many years, analysis of the US role in the 1975 Sahara crisis has had to rely on much speculation and little fact. This investigation is based on recently declassified US records and archival sources, as well as documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act. It demonstrates that the Ford administration adopted an explicitly pro-Moroccan policy. Though avowedly neutral in the affair, behind the scenes the US government worked to make sure the Spanish Sahara went to Morocco. in The Journal of North African Studies, Volume 11, Issue 3 September 2006 , pages 275-306.
- [Autonomy and Intifadah: New Horizons in Western Saharan Nationalism](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2006/06/01/autonomy-and-intifadah-new-horizons-in-western-saharan-nationalism/) - The Western Sahara conflict entered its thirtieth year last November. Celebrated by Moroccans and lamented by Sahrawi nationalists, the anniversary went largely unnoticed by the international community. Though it has been on the Security Council's agenda since 1988, Western Sahara has defied resolution by three successive Secretaries General and Kofi Annan's former personal envoy, former US Secretary of State James Baker. It is likely that a fourth Secretary General will take over management of the conflict next year. in Review of African Political Economy Vol.33 No.108 (June 2006), pp255-267.
- [A Battlefield Transformed: From Guerilla Resistance to Mass Nonviolent Struggle in the Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2006/03/01/a-battlefield-transformed-from-guerilla-resistance-to-mass-nonviolent-struggle-in-the-western-sahara/) - Coauthored with Maria Stephan, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 8/3 (Spring 2006): 1-32. Winner of the Society for Military and Strategic Studies 2006 Journal of Military and Strategic Studies Award of Excellence.
- [Western Sahara: The Other Occupation](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2006/02/01/western-sahara-the-other-occupation-stephen-zunes/) - Imagine an Arab Muslim nation, most of whose people have lived in the squalor of refugee camps for decades in exile from their homeland. Most of the remaining population suffers under foreign military occupation, with a smaller number living as a minority within the legally-recognized territory of the occupier. The occupying power is in violation of a series of UN Security Council resolutions, has illegally brought in tens of thousands of settlers into the occupied territory, routinely violates international standards of human rights, has built a heavily-fortified separation barrier deep inside the occupied territory, and continues to defy a landmark decision of the International Court of Justice. Furthermore, and despite all this, the occupying power is considered to be a close ally of the United States and receives substantial American military, economic, and diplomatic support to maintain its occupation and colonization of the territory. This certainly describes the situation regarding Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including greater East Jerusalem) and Syria's Golan region, as well as its quasi-occupation of the Gaza Strip. But it also describes the thirty-year occupation of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco.
- [How the US and Morocco seized the Spanish Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2006/01/01/how-the-us-and-morocco-seized-the-spanish-sahara/) - Last November marked the 30th anniversary of the Sahara crisis, triggered when Morocco successfully pressured Madrid out of its desert colony in autumn 1975. Despite the United States’ denials, declassified records reveal that King Hassan’s success was made possible through US intervention.
- [Book review: 'Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate' by Erik Jensen](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2005/12/01/book-review-western-sahara-anatomy-of-a-stalemate-by-erik-jensen/) - in Review of African Political Economy 106 (December 2005): 662-664.
- [Book review: 'Endgame in the Western Sahara' by Toby Shelley](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2005/06/01/book-review-endgame-in-the-western-sahara-by-toby-shelley/) - in Journal of North African Studies 10/2 (June 2005): 238-240.
- [Stubborn Stalemate in Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2004/06/26/stubborn-stalemate-in-western-sahara/) - in Middle East Report Online (26 June 2004), http://www.merip.org/mero/mero062604.html. Reprinted as ‘Die Uno Scheitert in der Wüste,’ Woz Die Wochenzeitung (Le Monde Diplomatique, Germany) 27 (1 July 2004): 11.
- ["Seized of the Matter": The UN and the Western Sahara Dispute](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2004/06/01/seized-of-the-matter-the-un-and-the-western-sahara-dispute/) - Since 1988, the United Nations has been actively involved in the Western Sahara dispute between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Western Saharan liberation movement known as the Frente POLISARIO. Over fifteen years later, there seems to be no end in sight for this seemingly intractable conflict. For the UN, the Western Sahara file is beginning to look less like East Timor and a lot more like Cyprus. in Mediterranean Quarterly 15.3 (2004), pp.130-148.
- [Self Determination Struggle in the Western Sahara Continues to Challenge the UN](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2003/09/01/self-determination-struggle-in-the-western-sahara-continues-to-challenge-the-un/) - After much wrangling from the French, the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1495 right on the July 31st deadline for the rollover of the MINURSO peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara. In the best diplomatic tradition, the resolution affirmed the commitment to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, even while it seriously compromised on it by supporting a peace plan that would allow the Moroccan settlers in the territory to vote on independence in five years. As with Israeli settlers on the West Bank, these Moroccan colonists are there in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits countries from transfering their civilian population onto territories seized by military force.
- [Indigestible Lands? Comparing the Fates of the Western Sahara and East Timor](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/2001/01/01/indigestible-lands-comparing-the-fates-of-the-western-sahara-and-east-timor/) - Book chapter in Rightsizing the State: The Politics of Moving Borders edited by Brendan O’Leary, Ian Lustick and Thomas Callaghy (Oxford University Press 2001).
- [New Hope for Western Sahara](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1998/04/01/new-hope-for-western-sahara/) - Article in Peace Review, Vol. 10, No. 1 (April 1998).
- [The United States and the Western Sahara Peace Process](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1998/01/01/the-united-states-and-the-western-sahara-peace-process/) - Article in Middle East Policy, Vol. V, No. 4 (February 1998).
- [Western Sahara: Peace Derailed](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1996/05/01/western-sahara-peace-derailed/) - Article in Current History (May 1996).
- [Algeria, the Maghreb Union, and the Western Sahara Stalemate](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1995/07/01/algeria-the-maghreb-union-and-the-western-sahara-stalemate/) - Article in Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 17; No. 3 (Summer 1995)
- [The United States in the Sahara War: A Case of Low-Intensity Intervention](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1993/01/01/the-united-states-in-the-sahara-war-a-case-of-low-intensity-intervention/) - Book chapter in International Dimensions of the Western Sahara Conflict edited by Daniel Volman and Yahia Zoubir (Greenwood Press 1993).
- [Participatory Democracy in the Western Sahara: A Study of Polisario Self-Governance](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1988/06/01/participatory-democracy-in-the-western-sahara-a-study-of-polisario-self-governance/) - Article in Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives Vol. 7; Nos. 2-3 (June-September 1988).
- [Nationalism and Non-Alignment: The Non-Ideology of the Polisario](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1988/02/10/nationalism-and-non-alignment-the-non-ideology-of-the-polisario/) - Article in Africa Today Vol. 34; No. 3 (February 10, 1988).
- [The United States and Morocco: The Sahara War and Regional Interests](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/1987/10/01/the-united-states-and-morocco-the-sahara-war-and-regional-interests/) - Article in Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 9; No. 4 (Autumn 1987)

## Pages

- [Home](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/) - Western Sahara: War, Nationalism & Conflict Irresolution Western Sahara Find Stephen Zunes's latest articles and interviews on Western Sahara and Morocco Also search the complete Archive of nearly 1000 published articles, interviews and lectures (1989-Present) by Professor Zunes on the Middle East, Nonviolent Social Movements and Change, and Western Sahara and Morocco -- plus more at StephenZunes.org. Please share site links widely by email,
- [Reviews](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/reviews/) - Also search the Archive of all Professor Stephen Zunes's writings, interviews and lectures on the Western Sahara, and his complete Archive of nearly 1000 published articles (1989-2024), interviews and lectures on the Middle East, Nonviolent Social Movements and Change, and Western Sahara at StephenZunes.org. Reviewed by Hugh Roberts (Tufts) in International Journal of Middle East
- [About the Authors](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/authors/) - Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he serves as coordinator of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, international terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, strategic nonviolent action,
- [About the Book](https://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/index.php/about/) - Also search the Archive of all Professor Stephen Zunes's writings, interviews and lectures on the Western Sahara, and his complete Archive of nearly 1000 published articles (1989-2024), interviews and lectures on the Middle East, Nonviolent Social Movements and Change, and Western Sahara at StephenZunes.org. The Western Sahara conflict has proven to be one of the

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