From Wednesday, April 17th: The U.S. is
redeploying troops, which were supposed to take part in annual joint Moroccan-American
military exercises. Morocco announced
that it would cancel its part in the annual African Lion exercises amid a
dispute over Western Sahara. These
exercises would have involved 1,400 U.S. troops and 900 members of the Moroccan
military. The U.S. backed UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's proposal for “sustained” human rights
monitoring in Western Sahara. This was
strongly criticized by the Moroccan government as an “attack on the sovereignty
of Morocco” and as something which “will have negative consequences on the
stability of the whole region.”
This characterizes the ongoing territorial dispute within
the region of Western Sahara. Moroccan
sovereignty over the region is not recognized by any member state of the UN,
nor is Western Sahara recognized as being independent. That being said, the willingness of the U.S.
to deploy troops to the region indicates that the international community will
continue to play a major role in shaping the region and the politics of
Morocco.
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| A Moroccan Soldier grappling with a reserve U.S. Marine during a martial arts training in Tifnit, Morocco, May, 16, 2010 at African Lion. |
The topic of human rights is also of major concern to the
stability of the Moroccan Monarchy, much like many other countries in the
region. However, Morocco differs from
other countries in the region in that it doesn’t have vast natural resources to
support the regime and its level of cooperation with the West, notably the
U.S. Without vast resources, like Saudi
Arabia, the West does not have to please the regime for the sake of resource
security. This means that the west would
most likely be more supportive of democratization than in oil rich
regions. The fact that the U.S. also has
military alliances with Morocco means that it will be more likely to intervene,
than say in Syria, if instability arose.
Looking ahead, how with the refusal by the Moroccan government to engage
in the military exercises affect the region?
It’s not likely to change U.S. and European foreign policy goals in the
region, as they already have a heavy influence there, nor will it change the
disputed status of Western Sahara, which is not recognized as part of
Morocco.
Sources:
"US to redeploy Morocco troops in Western Sahara spat." BBC News Africa. BBC, 18 Apr 2013. Web. 18 Apr 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22189197>.
Sources:
"US to redeploy Morocco troops in Western Sahara spat." BBC News Africa. BBC, 18 Apr 2013. Web. 18 Apr 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22189197>.
The problem of Western Sahara definitely highlights some of the underlying issues in Morocco that need to be addressed in order to consider the country a true parliamentary democracy.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that despite the human rights issues in Morocco, even the organized protestors were never looking to overthrow the monarchy. Mohammed VI has been able to maintain a miraculously stable regime with broad support, even without the presence of oil as in the case of Saudi Arabia. It seems that any conceivable outcome will still include the monarchy in some capacity.