The Western Sahara Conflict

Welcome to the first episode of Perspectives! A podcast where we explore geopolitical perspectives on today’s challenges. In this first episode, we will be talking with Professor Jacob Mundy, an expert on the Western Sahara conflict, co-author of “Western Sahara: War, nationalism and conflict irresolution”. This conflict, although major in the lives of thousands, is often overlooked on the international scene, which is why it’s such a pertinent issue for Perspectives’ first episode. Western Sahara is a territory wedged between Morocco, Mauritania, and the Atlantic Ocean and has historically been inhabited by a nomadic people, the Sahrawi. In 1884, Spain colonized the area, and it remained under Spanish rule until 1975. When this imperial power left the territory, it came under Mauritanian and Moroccan control. A war then erupted between these two countries and the Polisario Front, the armed movement for Sahrawi independence. Mauritania eventually gave up on its territorial claims, leaving Morroco and the Polisario Front as the two belligerents. In 1991, a Ceasefire was brokered, which recently came to an end due to a skirmish between Polisario and Moroccan forces. Last year, the Trump administration made the decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, a decision that no other country had made. Today, Morocco controls about 80 percent of the territory, and the Polisario Front controls the remaining 20 percent.