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Is it All About Peace? Internationalizing Morocco’s Regional Strategic Interests through the Abraham Accords
Abstract
The Abraham Accords are perceived by the international community as agreements designed by the United States which are aimed at constructing Israeli legitimacy and recognition as well as American influence in the Mashrek and in the Maghreb. They are presented as multilateral agreements between countries representing various parts of “the Arab World” and Israel, while in fact, they are the cumulation of trilateral agreements between Israel, the United States and third countries. This paper focuses on the objectives and ambitions of Morocco in these accords. We argue that the preponderant national interest Morocco pursue in these treaties is in fact their instrumentalization as to achieve international recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Abraham Accords have become a rhetorical instrument to project Morocco’s project of nationalist construction both domestically but also internationally. While Morocco has traversed subsequent phases of either Africa-focused or “Arab-focused” diplomacy, the Abraham Accords now provide a window of opportunity through which Morocco can work on both fronts simultaneously. It is once again able to deploy its influence on the Mashrek-Maghreb front, at the heart of the Arab League’s most significant locus – Israel-Palestine – while also continuing its current project of diplomatic construction on the African continent. While there are tangible, strategic gains that have started to materialize for the Moroccan government through its relationship with Israel: military cooperation, diplomatic recognition, increasing trade, access to high technology, increased people-to-people ties– there remains significant ambiguity over Morocco’s ability to reach its objective of fully shifting the international consensus in its favour regarding the question of the Western Sahara. Almost three years after the signature of the accords, this paper also shows that while Morocco builds its nationalist project on the question of Western Sahara, in turn, the United States continues to use this question to keep the territory in a state of “perpetual irresolution” (Mundy 2016). This “perpetual irresolution” has been a major vector of reproduction of American global dominance over Maghrebi politics.
Discipline
International Relations/Affairs
Political Science
Geographic Area
Israel
Maghreb
Morocco
Sub Area
None