¹ The recent Russian interventions in Chechenya, Georgia, Moldova, and Tajikistan were undertaken without international consultation or approval.

² Thomas Buergenthal, cited by Franck, Thomas, ‘The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance’, in The American Journal of International Law (Washington, DC), 86, 46, 1992, p. 68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank use the first two methods to force less developed countries to implement economic reforms, often in attempts to reduce price controls or lower inflation. Recently, multilateral organisations like the UN, and governments, like those of the United States and France, have tried to link aid to democratic reforms, notably the holding of multi-party elections.

⁴ ‘Irredentism’ refers to an historical claim made by one sovereign state to land and/or people outside its internationally recognised boundaries, justified on the grounds that the earlier separation was illegal or forced.

⁵ The population was approximately 75,000 according to the 1974 Spanish census, and 163,868 according to the Moroccan census taken in September 1982, of whom 96,784 were stated to reside in the capital, El-Ayoun.

⁶ See Pazzanita, Anthony G., ‘Morocco versus Polisario: a political interpretation’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 32, 2, 06 1994, p. 271, for a map of ‘Western Sahara and Neighbouring Countries’.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ Estimates of Morocco's annual expenditure on this costly guerrilla war have been in the $1,000 million range, but the berms at least permitted the resumption of phosphate production which had been hampered by repeated Polisario attacks.

⁸ At times, Soviet arms also came via Czechoslovakia and Cuba, but these slowed down significantly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

⁹ Østerud, Øyvind, ‘War Termination in the Western Sahara’, in Bulletin of Peace Proposals (Oslo), 20, 3, 1989, pp. 311–12.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ The USSR ranked second in world production of phosphates, yet Soviet domestic demand, as well as that of its satellites, was so great that it necessitated a deal. Further, many of the Soviet resources are located in the north, where the harsh climate hinders mining for several months.

¹² Zoubir, Yahia, ‘Soviet Policy toward the Western Sahara Conflict’, in Africa Today (Denver), 34, 3, 987, p. 24Google Scholar. Imports of Moroccan phosphates increased again when the United States cut off its supply to the Soviets after the invasion of Afghanistan. Throughout this period, Morocco obtained approximately 60 per cent of its oil needs from the U.S.S.R.

¹³ Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, ‘Morocco News Summary’, Washington, DC, 09 and 10 1985, p. 25.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Pravda (Moscow), 4 11 1975,Google Scholar cited by Zoubir, loc. cit. p. 20. In 1979, the Soviets again voted to recognise the Polisario as the representative organ of the Western Sahara, primarily in order to please African and other Non-Aligned Movement member-states of the United Nations.

¹⁵ Moscow broadcast in Arabic, 29 October 1979, cited by Zoubir, loc. cit. p. 27.

¹⁶ The former Soviet Union provided $2,700 million of arms to Algeria between 1986 and 1993, far outpacing other suppliers. Grimmett, Richard, ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to the Third World, 1986–1993’, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 29 07 1994.Google Scholar

¹⁷ For example, Moscow radio in Arabic to North Africa, 2 March 1981, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service/Soviet Union (Washington, DC), 3 03 1981, p. H1.Google Scholar

¹⁸ United Nations General Assembly, Special Committee Records, 1337th Meeting, 9 August 1988, pp. 2–16, report from John Zindar, Center for Defence Information.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Interview, 7 June 1991, in Virginia.

²⁰ Prior to that, the Administration of Gerald Ford had agreed to a $222 million arms sale for Morocco, the total of all previous deals having amounted to only $47 million. Zindar, loc. cit. pp. 2–16.

²¹ Hodges, Tony, Western Sahara: the roots of a desert war (Westport, CT, 1983), pp. 358–9.Google Scholar

²² Hodges, op. cit. p. 359.

²³ International Institute of Strategic Studies, Military Balance (London, 1988), p. 223. The totals differ from some of the announced sales as they were often delivered several years after being promised.Google Scholar

²⁴ Grimmett, op. cit.

²⁵ International Herald Tribune (Paris), 22 12 1981.Google Scholar As reported in Financial Times, 29 January 1981, Washington asserted that the sale had been finalised before Algeria got involved in the negotiations.Google Scholar

²⁶ Solarz, Stephen J., ‘Arms for Morocco?’, in Foreign Affairs, 58, Winter 1979–1980, p. 289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁷ ‘Foreign Economic Trends and Their Implications for the United States: Algeria’, prepared by the American Embassy in Algiers, and released by the US Department of Commerce, November 1980, p. 3.

²⁸ The World Economic Factbook, 1994–5 (London, 1994), p. 53. Although the US was only purchasing 15.1 per cent of Algeria's exports in 1992 (as against 60.2 per cent in 1979), this amounted to the third largest share.Google Scholar

²⁹ See, for example, Hodges, op. cit. p. 362.

³⁰ Letter from Senator Danforth, John C. to Vance, Cyrus R., Secretary of State, dated 12 March 1979.Google Scholar

³¹ Approximately 20,000 French citizens have been living in Algeria (though that number has been reduced significantly in the last year due to violence), and 25,000 in Morocco, while as many as 615,000 Algerians and 570,000 Moroccans are living legally in France. This information supplied in 1994 by the French Embassy in London comes from the 1990 and 1992 censuses.

³² Balta, Paul, ‘French Policy in North Africa’, in The Middle East Journal (Washington, DC), 40, 2, Spring 1986, p. 243.Google Scholar

³³ The World Economic Factbook, op. cit. p. 53.

³⁴ Armengol, Vicenc Fisas, ‘El Contencioso con Marruecos el Futuro Estratégico de España’, in AFERS International (Primavera, 1983), p. 30,Google Scholar and SIPRI Yearbook of World Armaments and Disarmament (Stockholm, 1993), p. 479.Google Scholar

³⁵ Naylor, Phillip C., ‘Spain and France and the Decolonization of Western Sahara: parity and paradox, 1975–87’, in Africa Today, 34, 3, 1987, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

³⁶ Balta, loc. cit. pp. 245–6.

³⁷ In 1991, France supplied Morocco with $312.7 million of development assistance (followed by the US at $74 million), partly as a reward for supporting the West in the Gulf war, and was also Algeria's number one supplier of development assistance that same year, at 45 per cent of the total. Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Profile, Morocco, 1993–94, p. 41, and Country Profile, Algeria, 1993–94, p. 42.Google Scholar

³⁸ Interview, 7 June 1991.

³⁹ In fact, the Polisario has tried since its inception to force Spain to renounce the Madrid agreements by sporadically attacking Spanish fishing boats off the Sahara coast. Algeria added additional pressure in the late 1970s by supporting the Movimiento para la Autodeterminación y Independencia del Archipielago Canario.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ The Spanish consume more fish per head than their European partners, and the coastlines of the Western Sahara and Morocco have rich supplies.

⁴¹ Tiempo (Madrid), 29 10 1984,Google Scholar claimed that Spain sold Morocco weapons worth 35,000 million pesetas through Saudi Arabia. See also Reyes, Luis, ‘Relaciones con Marruecos’, in Anuario Sobre Armentismo en España (Madrid, 1986), p. 197.Google Scholar

⁴² ‘The Maghrib in 1986’, in Legum, Colin (ed.), Africa Contemporary Record: annual survey and documents, 1986–87 (London, 1987), p. A122,Google Scholar and SIPRI Yearbook (Stockholm, 1994), p. 513.Google Scholar

⁴³ El País (Madrid), 5 07 1991,Google Scholar and The World Economic Factbook, 1994, p. 301.

⁴⁴ Africa Confidential (London), 28, 8, 15 04 1987, p. 5.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ The Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile, Morocco, 1993–94, pp. 25 and 42.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ International Herald Tribune, 11 May 1981, reported a claim by US military experts that Libya had bought 100 West German M-1 light tactical aircraft for delivery to the Polisario, which up to that point had only ground weapons.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Hassan's difficulties in obtaining third-world support were partially based on his involvement in the Cabinda crisis in Zaïre, which alienated radical régimes in Angola, Mozambique, and Tanzania, which viewed Morocco's actions as interference in the domestic affairs of an African state. The King was also condemned by some Arab leaders for conducting a war against his Arab ‘brothers’ (Polisario members and Algerians). Further, Morocco's assistance with the Camp David accords and its general conciliatory policy towards Israel, along with its purchase of South African weapons during the apartheid era, angered most Arab and many African states.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Phosphate prices have been depressed since the mid-1970s. Even without the Saharan resources, Morocco would still rank third in world production after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

⁴⁹ Hodges, op. cit. p. 348.

⁵⁰ Interview, 7 June 1991.

⁵¹ See, for example, Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard, The Western Saharans: background to conflict (London, 1980), p. 302.Google Scholar