Western Sahara: subtleties and multiple sources of recognition for a hybrid of a state-in-exile and a de facto state

Abstract

This chapter provides a comparative insight into the particular features of Western Sahara as an outlier within the universe of contested states, and the small print of international recognition and statehood stemming from them. Following a historical background on Western Sahara’s historical struggle for statehood, the chapter addresses the conceptual debate as to why the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) escapes all of the usual categories, while sharing some features with de facto/quasi/unrecognised states on one hand and states-in-exile on the other. The chapter then explores the mixed affect the combination of foreign occupation and extraterritoriality has on the SADR’s statehood under international law. Next, the multiple territorialities of Western Sahara/SADR are unpacked by discussing the effective situation of the Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara territory, the Algerian-based Sahrawi refugee camps, where the Polisario Front and the SADR have their extraterritorial headquarters and primary area of governance, and the so-called Liberated Zone that the last two actors control in Western Sahara proper. Finally, the chapter discusses these territorialities in relation to three partially overlapping sources of international (non-)recognition, i.e. the non-recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty claims over Western Sahara, the recognition of the Polisario Front as a national liberation movement and a conflict party, and the partial recognition of the SADR as a sovereign state.