1 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE The Morocco–Algeria dispute and Western Sahara Samuel R. Ginn Morocco faces two critical challenges that have direct effects on its national security and economic development. Decades of diplomatic disputes and spates of violence between Morocco and Algeria, stemming from the colonial and postcolonial periods, are intertwined with an ongoing conflict regarding Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. This article examines the historical roots of both challenges and the complexities of their interconnectedness and presents conflict resolution strategies. Introduction Despite sharing historical and colonial ties, Morocco and Algeria evolved separately, becoming two nations with distinct economic, governmental, and social structures. Such differences came about due to the nature of their decolonization processes, Cold War affiliations, and governmental compositions, all of which have led to animosity, civil strife, and violent clashes between the two nations (Heggoy & Zingg, 1976; Ouhemmou, 2023). Regional rivalry was renewed by American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020. The resultant end of a nearly three-decade-long cease-fire between the two parties in that year has enhanced prospects for violence between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2021). Threat of physical conflict and movement beyond the realm of diplomatic sparring became apparent through the deaths of three Algerian truck drivers in Western Sahara in November 2021 in a bombing the Algerian government has claimed was perpetrated by Morocco (Rachidi, 2022). The potential for further bloodshed places the lives of many Moroccans and Algerians in jeopardy, especially in border areas where disputes over land ownership and immigration have occurred. Such disputes have disenfranchised those living in border regions and are especially threatening for Algerians who make up approximately 7% of the immigrant population in Morocco (Ouhemmou, 2023). A lack of cooperation between the two countries has hampered responses to illegal immigration and heightened the potential for extremist spillover from Sahelian Africa, placing strain on government budgets. Much of that budgetary strain is related to military spending, which rose to 3.9% of the Moroccan GDP and 4.8% of the Algerian GDP in 2022, levels that effectively reflect an arms race between the two nations (Dworkin, 2022; Ouhemmou, 2023; World Bank, 2023a, 2023b). In terms of total expenditures, Morocco and Algeria accounted for approximately 74% of all military spending in the North African subregion in 2022 (Tian et al., 2023). Not surprisingly, the nations are purchasing armaments from their old Cold War allies to make up for the inadequacies present in their domestic defense industries, with Russia providing 65% to 75% of all arms sales to Algeria, a 129% increase from 2009 to 2018, and the United States reportedly fulfilling 91% of Moroccan arms purchases (Hekking, 2020; Hill, 2023; International Trade Administration, 2023). The worrying pace of escalation has its roots in the postcolonial and Cold War eras, creating a need to understand how to best ease the pressures of what these countries consider existential threats to their sovereignty. The development of domestic defense industries, strengthening of Algeria in the wake of the Ukraine War, and reliance on Cold War allies could lead to the detonation of a North African powder keg (Hill, 2023). Although the two nations are reliant on their Cold War patrons for arms, it is important to recognize self-determination, pride, fear, and sovereignty as key drivers of the ongoing tensions, with the disputes between Morocco and the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara the primary bone of contention from the Moroccan perspective. The Sahrawi people are a predominantly Arabic-speaking, mixed ethnic group of Arab, Berber, and Sahelian makeup. Now mostly sedentary, they are a formerly nomadic people who lay ancestral claim to present-day Western Sahara, Southern Morocco, Southwestern Algeria, and parts of Mauritania. Due to their nomadic nature and the establishment of independent North African states that overlapped with Sahrawi ancestral homelands, as well as European colonialism, the Sahrawi people were both unable doi:10.18275/pbe-v042-002
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