A critical perspective of the Western Sahara conflict: influences of Moroccan occupation on Sahrawi resistance

Abstract

With more than forty years of conflict irresolution it has been remarkable that Western Saharan resistance has stayed persistent and developed from an armed struggle to predominantly peaceful civil resistance. Understanding resistance as reactions to imposed dominations, a critical perspective allows a better insight into how the Moroccan occupation - initiated in 1975 and still ongoing today - has influenced the Sahrawi inhabitants and provoked various forms of resistance. Honneth’s recognition theory and Foucault’s theorisations of sovereign and disciplinary power help shed light onto the motives and mechanisms of resistance. It is concluded that Sahrawi’s struggle for the recognition of their right to self-determination stays constant throughout the conflict. The transformation from violent to peaceful resistance can be seen as a consequence of limitations imposed by the merging of Moroccan sovereign and disciplinary power in the 1980s as well as the fear of alienating international recognition and support for Sahrawi rights due to the de-legitimising effect violent resistance can have on their struggle. While the theories are successful in predicting that resistance will target the mechanisms of power, they are unable to fully make sense of the transformation from violent to peaceful resistance.