A review of: „Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara: The Role of the UN's Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO)" edited by János Besenyő, R. Joseph Huddleston, and Yahia H. Zoubir

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) and the Security Council (UNSC) as its main political body is definitely the key actor in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security. To put it briefly, as a way to abide by its principles defined in the Charter of the United Nations, the UN have deployed peace operations in order to stabilize conflict-torn situations since quasi the very beginning of its existence. After the Cold War the international system has changed, just as power and international dynamics, that might have an impact on the evolution of armed conflicts and counter-strategies developed by the international community. During the 1990s, the changing nature and role of peace missions resulted in developing new multidimensional operations with w ide range of tasks and broad mandates. The international community’s commitment toward such conflict resolution endeavours with complex mandates concerns better accountability, cost-efficiency, international law compliance, human rights monitoring, and context-specific or community-based approaches, just to mention a few. After the end of the Spaniard authority over Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco occupied a meaningful part of the territory. In contrary to the exploitation of the natural resources and the support of the influx of new settlers to the territory by Rabat, and the strengthening of its military presence, the Saharawi population is still insisting on to exercise its self-determination. Since then, no other than the United States (US Embassy & Consulates in Morocco, 2020) has officially recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the Territory, and “ Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara is in fact not recognized in international law ” (Quesada and Brooks, p. 145). The international community is d ivided, some supports Western Sahara’s autonomy under Moroccan authority, while others insist on recognizing it as a sovereign state. The resolution of this conflict is in the interest of the whole international community and there is a must to force the parties to compromise. Even though both the International Court of