The impacts of the Western Sahara issue on the Algeria-Morocco relation and the Maghreb 2010-2015

Abstract EN

The Western Sahara issue is considered, as one of the main arguments for the absence of a Maghreb region integration organism, as this fact became one of the political outcomes of the conflict, that is viewed as the fundamental reason of the deteriorated relationship between the two biggest states of the regional system, and as it affects these two countries, it affects the whole region.

The study explores the historical background of the conflict, and investigates the roots of AlgerianMoroccan disagreement over it, through the description of the geopolitical importance of the Sahrawi territories, and the demonstration of the factors contributing to the extension of the conflict duration such as the resources and the population, then the Algerian and the Moroccan motivations shaping their positions toward the issue.

The paper attempts to answer the following question: To what extent does the Western Sahara issue affect the relationship between Algiers and Rabat? And how does that affect the Maghreb region integration process? It assumes that the Western Sahara Issue is affecting the two countries relations on several aspects: Political, Security, Socio-economic and even affecting their societal scale of value and by doing so, it is the main disruptive to the Arab Maghreb Union, and considers that as one of the political impacts of the issue.