Morocco and its Afro-Atlantic challenge
- The March Forward Metaphor
- Spatiality as a geopolitical issue
- Morocco in the South Atlantic space
- Who wants what? Who wants it? How and why?
The March Forward Metaphor
It is clear that context is a key factor in understanding a text, especially in the case of a speech by the head of state.
In this sense, the relevance of the royal message in a specific commemorative context (the 48th anniversary of the Green March) should be understood not only in terms of what the king says, but also in terms of what he does not say.
Thus, the scant attention paid in this royal speech to the development of the artificial conflict over the Moroccan Sahara is a clear and eloquent message to whomever it may concern, and at the same time invites us to appreciate all that the Green March can inspire as a metaphor for forward movement, proactive movement, innovative dynamism and the barriers that need to be broken down to strengthen regional integration and consolidate the Kingdom's Atlantic dimension.
This is not just a hyper-project of national upgrading of the coastline, including the Moroccan Sahara, but an Atlantic initiative of African scope and a geopolitical space that will be the subject of strategic structuring. This is a truly multidimensional issue, involving regional development, south-south cooperation and the consolidation of the Kingdom's territorial integrity.
According to the classic definition, geopolitics is the study of rivalries between powers over or for territories. In their study of space as an issue, geopolitical analysts are interested in the factors that lead states to attach geopolitical importance to certain geographical areas. What is the strategic importance that Morocco attaches to the Atlantic area and why does it wish to structure this geostrategic space, starting by developing its own coastal zone?
First of all, it should be noted that the structuring of the African Atlantic seaboard has never been a major issue in international relations or in African South-South cooperation in the past, despite the fact that it brings together the main assets and challenges of the African continent in a geopolitical space under construction. The 23 riparian countries represent 46% of Africa's population, 55% of Africa's GDP, 57% of continental trade and enormous natural resources (24 billion barrels of proven oil reserves off the Gulf of Guinea).
Hence the relevance of this far-sighted initiative launched by Morocco, which has made South-South cooperation a strategic option through the consolidation of its political relations and the diversification of its fruitful partnerships with the countries of the South, particularly Africa.
In this regard, Moroccan diplomacy, led by HM King Mohammed VI, is currently playing a leading role in strengthening cooperation in the African Atlantic area.
Several factors have been cited by observers to explain this geopolitical trend: climate change and the rapid industrialisation of most of the world are leading to an increasing scarcity of the Earth's resources, mainly water, soil and hydrocarbons. This growing scarcity has increased interest in the sea, a virgin territory that has not yet been exploited by industry and is said to abound in immeasurable natural resources. The sea is thus a space to be conquered, a resource to be exploited and an object of rivalry and contestation for power, in a world where the oceans play a major geostrategic role, not only in international trade and logistics, but also in energy.
Spatiality as a geopolitical issue
Among the geopolitical approaches characterised by a specific conception of spatiality, the actors' interest in it and the elements that contribute to determining or constructing it, the classical German school stands out, identifying close links between geography and the interests of states, where the conquest, control or projection of power over a given territory is necessary to achieve the interests of the state and the welfare of its citizens.
Neoclassical geopolitics, on the other hand, conducts a material analysis of geopolitical factors, but, unlike the classical school, it does not justify state behaviour on the basis of "natural needs" for expansion, but tries to understand its behaviour in terms of security, influence, and economic and commercial interests. Finally, critical geopolitics proposes an approach that questions the validity of geopolitical traditions that seek to analyse and identify the elements that are present in a given geographical space and influence the state's potential interest. This critical geopolitics aims to account for the way in which the spatial discourse of states' foreign policies is constructed.
The latter define their policies and objectives, which are projected in a given geographical space, on the basis of the identification of certain interests, which may be linked to security or economic issues, or simply to a national historical construction linked to the attachment to a certain geographical space considered to be their own.
Along the same lines, Argentine geopoliticians have shown a marked interest in the Southwest Atlantic region and its importance for Argentina. They maintain that the area is currently highly strategic and that, over time, it will become increasingly important not only for the states that surround it, but for all states in the international system. The presence of geopolitical factors such as the region's economic potential, the sovereignty conflicts that take place there and the uncertainty over the continuity of the Antarctic Treaty and the Madrid Protocol, as well as the possibility of future unfavourable scenarios, mean that the Argentine state pays considerable attention to the Southwest Atlantic region when establishing its national defence and foreign policy objectives and priorities.
Consequently, numerous geopolitical analyses have shown that the characteristics of the South Atlantic coincide with those identified - by the main geopolitical traditions - as necessary for a state to attach importance to a given geographical space, and have thus been able to formulate and recommend possible foreign and defence policies, allowing the Argentine state to characterise the South Atlantic as a geopolitically relevant space for its interests.
It is worth remembering that the Atlantic Ocean is the largest ocean on the planet after the Pacific Ocean, with 94 square kilometres, it is a space that links three continents, America, Africa and Europe, and includes the largest infrastructures to facilitate transport, such as the Panama Canal. It is a link between Americans and Europeans through the Atlantic Alliance, created in the context of the Cold War and revived in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition, the control of shipping and air routes between the two northern shores of the Atlantic Ocean has allowed the intensification of commercial and cultural exchanges, creating a kind of continental continuity between Europe and North America.
It was the domination of this vast geographical area that enabled the Western powers to impose their control over the world, especially during the 20th century, before another ocean, the Pacific, began to assert itself and establish a new logic in the international balance of power.
As for the southern part of the Atlantic space, throughout the 20th century it remained a mere geographical extension devoid of any geopolitical interest, until Morocco took the initiative under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, who made South-South cooperation a strategic option for Morocco by consolidating its political relations and diversifying its fruitful links with the countries of the South, particularly Africa. In this context, Moroccan diplomacy, guided by the royal vision, is committed to playing a pioneering role in ensuring coordination between African countries bordering the Atlantic, as well as opening new horizons to promote South-South cooperation in the Atlantic-African space.
Morocco in the South Atlantic space
The historical specificity of the South Atlantic, which separates Africa from Latin America but is often integrated into the geopolitics of the North Atlantic, is often overlooked. However, the South Atlantic area has its own historical, geopolitical and cultural characteristics, which have been highlighted by a growing number of researchers in the last two decades. These Afro-Atlantic constitutive elements of the South Atlantic area, which have been affirmed throughout history, offer today enormous opportunities for cooperation and development, which could transform the South Atlantic basin into a region of geopolitical interest, transcending the simple character of a strategic area of passage to other oceans, or of access to neighbouring continents and their resources and markets.
Morocco has two coasts with a total length of 3,500 kilometres, of which some 3,000 kilometres on the Atlantic and 500 kilometres on the Mediterranean. However, as King Mohammed VI's speech shows, this strategic advantage is not fully exploited.
The Moroccan sea represents an important geostrategic asset for the future, both in economic and energy terms, which presupposes a renewed geopolitical vision on the part of the Kingdom to exploit, as an asset, the country's maritime horizon, in order to make the most of this geographical blessing, and more particularly to promote investment opportunities on the Atlantic seaboard, making Morocco a port and logistics platform for African countries. "While Morocco's Mediterranean coast is firmly anchored to Europe, its Atlantic side gives it full access to Africa and a window to the American continent. This is why, explains the King, "We are determined to undertake a national modernisation of the coastline, including the Atlantic side of the Moroccan Sahara". It should be recalled that the development announced by the Sovereign is part of Morocco's long-standing interest in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first signs of this appeared at the end of the 1980s, at the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation between African States bordering the Atlantic Ocean, held in Morocco from 30 March to 1 April 1989. Some twenty years later, in 2009, in Rabat, the Kingdom launched the initiative to create an "Afro-Atlantic" space of opportunities and development, with the participation of 22 Atlantic coastal states.
His Majesty King Mohammed VI has always been convinced that African countries should take the lead in structuring this space, given that the North Atlantic is a structured space, while the South Atlantic remains an area that is not the subject of any joint action or institutionalised cooperation. In this respect, Morocco has taken three very important initiatives:
- The first is the creation of the new industrial port in the city of Dakhla, on the Atlantic coast of the Moroccan Sahara, a new mega-project structuring the new development model of the Moroccan Saharawi provinces, whose design had been inscribed by HM the King in the framework of Morocco's will to pursue the work of promoting the development of the Southern provinces and guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of their populations. Once the Dakhla Atlantic port is completed by the end of 2028, as planned, this gigantic project will play a key role as a strategic lever, confirming the Kingdom's African roots and strengthening its Atlantic dimension.
- The second initiative taken by Morocco as part of its strategic vision of the Atlantic area was the creation in 2009 in Rabat of the Ministerial Conference of the African States bordering the Atlantic which, with the aim of establishing a zone of peace, security and prosperity, will be able to develop a common African vision of this vital space, promote an African Atlantic identity and defend the continent's strategic interests with a single voice. It will also open up new business opportunities for Latin American companies by giving them access to a larger market in West Africa, thereby strengthening South-South cooperation between Africa and Latin America and promoting solidarity among Southern countries so that they can develop joint solutions to global challenges such as climate change, poverty and inequality.
- The third initiative concerns the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline project, a flagship project with considerable economic, political and strategic dimensions, which could become the world's longest offshore gas pipeline.
Last September, Morocco, Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed an agreement to advance the development of this mega-project, whose studies are currently at an advanced stage, and which would extend 7,000 kilometres through the waters of thirteen West African countries before reaching Europe. There is no doubt that, given the current uncertainty caused by the energy crisis aggravated by Russia's war in Ukraine, the Morocco-Nigeria pipeline will be a key energy infrastructure on the African continent and on a global scale.
Who wants what? Who wants it? How and why?
Faced with an event (tension, crisis, conflict, war, negotiations), the parameters to be taken into account in a geopolitical analysis are too numerous and too different for each situation.
It is a matter of identifying the actors, analysing their motivations, describing their intentions, detecting budding alliances or, on the contrary, alliances in the process of deconstruction, whether at the local, regional, continental or international level.
A relevant approach would therefore be to ask the right questions
Who wants what? with whom? with whom? and why?
So who are we talking about in this Afro-Atlantic initiative?
Morocco is working to diversify its strategic partners, as King Mohammed VI confirmed in his speech in Riyadh: "Morocco is free in its decisions and choices and is not the preserve of any country. It will remain faithful to its commitments to its partners, who must not see their interests harmed".
What does Morocco want? To work on the structuring of an Afro-Atlantic area of cooperation and development based on a shared vision of the risks and challenges.
With whom? With all the African countries bordering the Atlantic. How? By developing its Atlantic seaboard (port infrastructures, tourism projects, construction of a strong and competitive national maritime trade fleet, etc.) and opening up these actions to non-coastal states in solidarity, thus forging an "Afro-Atlantic" strategic identity. Why? Simply because Morocco seems to have drawn all the consequences of a Maghreb project that failed to achieve its initial objectives, as well as the consequences of an advanced status that lacks concrete progress and, of course, the consequences of an "insularity" that has been perfectly overcome.
Published by Omega Center
REFERENCES
LA FAÇADE ATLANTIQUE DE L’AFRIQUE :UN ESPACE GÉOPOLITIQUE EN CONSTRUCTION. Sous la direction du Professeur Rachid EL HOUDAIGUI .OCP Policy Center
Ezequiel Magnani, La dimensión geopolítica del interés estatal: el Atlántico Sur Occidental y su relevancia para Argentina. Revista RELACIONES INTERNACIONALES, N° 93.1. Enero-Junio de 2020. Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica
METHODES DE LA GEOPOLITIQUE, François THUAL, Iris, Ellipses, 1996
Biography
Mohamed Benabdelkader est né le 15 avril 1961 à Tétouan, Titulaire d’un doctorat en sciences de communication, d’un master en études diplomatiques et d’une licence en philosophie.
- 2016-2018: Secrétaire général adjoint de la Commission Nationale Marocaine pour l’Education les Sciences et la Culture .Membre du Conseil Exécutif de l’ISESCO
- 2017, 2019 Ministre délégué auprès du Chef du Gouvernement chargé de la Réforme de l’Administration et de la Fonction Publique
- 2019-2021 Ministre de la Justice.