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Introduction Traditional diplomacy was formerly run solely within a state-controlled framework; that is, between States, and it was by means of their official representatives. Today, modern diplomacy reflects a multidimensional aspect. It has made it such that different non-governmental organizations (individuals, civil society organizations, the private sector, scientific institutions, and subsidiary authorities) get involved in international activity. This is due to the fact that States have come to realize the importance of the participation of these different actors in the administering of their foreign policy. It was thus that traditional diplomacy was put in question. In fact, it is henceforth impossible to limit State diplomacy to the exclusive framework of specialized governmental entities. It is on this very diplomatic path that Morocco has committed itself in the recent years. Diverse actors are now involved in certain international issues, which is notably the case of the question of territorial integrity, as well as that of economic diplomacy. In fact, the creation of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) falls within the framework of the co-handling, as it were, of the question of territorial integrity. This said, among the principal missions of CORCAS, there figures the defense of the Sahara affair on the international scene. Hence, in his Royal speech addressed to the members of CORCAS, on the occasion of their nomination on 25 March 2006, the King of Morocco said: «Given your patriotism and deep loyalty to the Kingdom's immutable values, I ask you to serve as the mouthpiece of your brothers in international bodies and forums, shedding light on the just cause of our territorial integrity (...) ». It will transpire from analyzing both the Dahir (decree) relative to the creation of CORCAS and the Royal founding speech concerning this institution that the functions of this Council are from being confined to internal affairs only. In fact, they extend over to the administration of certain aspects of Moroccan foreign policy, at the head of which is the question of territorial integrity. It is appropriate to emphasize here that the prerogatives of the Council in the areas of internal and foreign policies are of an advisory, not deliberative, nature. Articles 1 and 2 of the Dahir relative to the creation of this Council explicitly show that it is a question of an advisory commission that addresses any questions that bear upon the territorial integrity, national unity, economic and social development of the provinces of the south. In order to analyze the international activity of CORCAS, as well as its external preoccupations, we will lay out at first the mechanisms (official and non-official) of the international activity of CORCAS (I). Then, we will examine the most important affairs that characterize the international activity of CORCAS, as dominated by the Sahara affair (II). I. the mechanisms of the international activity of corcas In its international activity, CORCAS adopts two kinds of procedure. The procedure is that of traditional diplomacy, which is manifested at the level of the official delegations that are dispatched to different capitals of the world, the aim being to explain the Moroccan position regarding the Sahara affair. In fact, this procedure principally targets personalities and governmental institutions. The second procedure, in turn, concerns international opinion. It is thus that several means of communication are deployed. This procedure is called, indeed, a general diplomacy procedure, or also popular diplomacy. A. official diplomacy The delegations dispatched by CORCAS abroad, as well as the delegations received within the framework of the visits made to Morocco, constitute the most important channel of diplomacy led by CORCAS. These encounters and discussions offer an occasion for CORCAS to present as well as shed light upon the question of the Sahara, notably the «Moroccan Initiative for Negotiating an Autonomy Statute in the Sahara Region». 1. the delegations dispatched abroad CORCAS has paid a series of official visits to a number of international capitals, notably with a view to presenting and explaining the reasons behind and the content of the Moroccan Initiative for Autonomy, and that was even prior to the presentation by Morocco to the UN of the afore-cited Initiative. Within this framework, the first visits were made to the countries that are geographically in close proximity to Morocco, but whose support is of great importance (Spain, France). During the year 2006, the most important visits made by CORCAS could be summed up as follows: The Canary Islands. The CORCAS delegation engaged in a series of in-depth discussions with different local political and civil actors. These discussions bore upon the situation of the provinces of the south, as well as the Moroccan Project of Autonomy; Washington. Among its most important meetings, CORCAS had one with the assistant-Advisor of the American President at the National Council in charge of the Middle-East and the strategy for democracy. The Council has also met with the State Secretary in charge of the Middle-East and the Arab Maghreb. During this visit, the President of CORCAS has also explained the autonomy project; Madrid. Several meetings were organized with politicians, parliamentarians and trade union executives. These meetings addressed issues pertaining to the creation and composition of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs, as well as the Moroccan Project of Autonomy; Andalusia. During this visit, the president of CORCAS invited the political powers and civil society in Andalusia to come to the support of the Moroccan Project of Autonomy; Brussels. The CORCAS delegation had meetings with a certain number of European and Belgian officials, including those at the Belgian Parliament. During this visit, the President of CORCAS especially presented the Moroccan autonomy initiative; Geneva. A CORCAS delegation was received at the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva in order lay bare the Human rights situation in Tindouf.
During the year 2007, these visits had for a destination: Madrid and Paris. During these visits, the members of CORCAS could visit with several government officials, with Parliamentarians, as well as civil society actors, both in France and in Spain, the objective being to enlighten the decision-makers of as well as public opinion in the two countries on the fundaments of the Moroccan Project of Autonomy; Argentina. The President of CORCAS, in his quality as an envoy of the King, along with M. Benaissa, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, left for Argentina in order to present the broad outlines of the Moroccan Autonomy Project.
2. the foreign delegations received in morocco The visits of foreign delegations in Morocco represent one of the most important aspects of the international activity of CORCAS in that they allow the latter to arrange meetings with foreign officials visiting Morocco. As far as CORCAS is concerned, such meetings offer an occasion for presenting and explaining the Moroccan Project of Autonomy. In addition to their intensive character, these meetings were especially characterized by the presence of senior officials of international renown: Presidents and Heads of governments, parliament officials as well as foreign senior executives. During the year 2006, the most important meetings concerned the following personalities and institutions: The Chinese president Hu Jintao; The Emir of the State of Kuwait, Cheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah; The former personal envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for the Sahara, Peter Van Walsum; The ambassador of the Netherlands, in charge of Human rights; A delegation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; The president of the Irish Parliament; The first vice-president of the Parliament of Paraguay; The Director of political affairs at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accompanied by the ambassador of his country in Morocco; The president of the Greek parliamentarian friendship; The General Secretary of the minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark; The president of the Human rights Commission at the German parliament.
Besides, several meetings took place with foreign ambassadors in Morocco, of whom the ambassador of the United States in Morocco, the ambassador of the United Kingdom, of Russia, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, France, and Turkey. The meetings that have marked the year 2007 the most, and which were held in Morocco, concerned: The president of the Peruvian parliament majority; The president of the Finnish Parliament; The president of the cultural committee at the municipal council of the Emilia region (Romania); The president of the National Assembly of Surinam; Two advisors of the ambassador of Japan in Morocco; The president of the Polish parliament; The president of the National Assembly in Niger; The president of the Norwegian parliament; The president of the Chilean Parliament; The president of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo; The general Secretary of the Swedish Parliament; Some African ambassadors who reside in Tripoli; A delegation representing the Spanish Senate; A delegation representing the Moroccan-Colombian Parliamentarian Friendship Group; The assistant of the minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar for follow-up affairs. The vice-president of the Senate in Mexico; A senior German delegation comprised of seven members who represent the group «Friends of Morocco»; A delegation of the Ivory Coast composed of five journalists who belong to the most important media in Ivory Coast; The president of the Swiss National Assembly (the federal Parliament); Some representatives of the Assembly of Jewish Americans; The ambassador of Canada in Morocco.
As to the year 2008, the most important meetings took place with the presence of: The president of the Assembly of the Sultanate of Oman. The president of the independent government of Catalonia. The president of the parliamentarian Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A delegation representing the Mauritanian majority parties. The president of the «Parti de l'Union et du Changement» in Mauritania.
Thus, all these meetings bring together the members of CORCAS with officials from diverse institutions, but also some international personalities, both abroad and on Moroccan soil. This shows, indeed, the importance of the activity of CORCAS, which seeks to present the Moroccan Autonomy Project, and to sensitize international public opinion about the appropriateness of the national cause, which accounts for the force of impact of CORCAS at the international plane-a thing that gets confirmed thanks to the declarations made by these international personalities, who stand firmly by the Moroccan Autonomy Project describing it as they do as being realistic and realizable. B. public diplomacy Public diplomacy; or popular diplomacy, generally takes into the fold the different diplomatic activities that aim at realizing general interest, and doing so by establishing relations of information and influence with the different interlocutors , and making use of different modern means of communication such as television, the radio, the Internet, and cultural exchange. What explains the emergence of this type of diplomacy is, in fact, not only the revolution that has shaken the audio-visual domain, but also the importance that public opinion takes. Indeed, what sets off public diplomacy from traditional diplomacy is the fact that the former is not exclusively reserved for governments, as it could also be undertaken by non- governmental institutions, as well as by non-official persons. Traditional diplomacy, in contrast, remains the work of governments and their representatives. In this sense, public diplomacy has created the need for a redefinition of the traditional understanding of the very concept of representation. The notion of public diplomacy is tied with the concept of "soft power," which designates the realization of common interests thanks to persuasion and attraction. As to the concept of "hard power," the fact is that it implies that the objectives are realized by appealing to economic and military pressure, most notably. However, it is appropriate to make a distinction between the concept of public diplomacy and that of propagandist diplomacy. The former tends to process real data, and to transmit them to foreign interlocutors without any intention for deceit. Propagandist diplomacy, however, is the operation of falsifying data and realities, and in fine, the transmission of false information to public opinion abroad. The public diplomacy of CORCAS aims, in fact, at informing international public opinion, foreign peoples, the international press, as well as different foreign institutions, about its policy and its objectives. Also, thanks to its public diplomacy, CORCAS seeks to present and explain the different points of the Moroccan Autonomy Project, through both direct and indirect means, a fact which was explicitly stated in the Royal speech of 25 March 2006, during the nomination of the members of CORCAS: « Given your patriotism and deep loyalty to the Kingdom's immutable values, I ask you to serve as the mouthpiece of your brothers in international bodies and forums, (...), and highlighting the achievements made by Morocco, as well as the reforms it has been introducing to forge ahead with sustainable human development and to promote democracy ». The public diplomacy of CORCAS unfolds, indeed, in an indefatigably continuous manner, thanks to the meetings and interviews that the members of CORCAS establish with the international press, especially the great satellite channels; or also by way of the website of CORCAS, which falls within what is called virtual public diplomacy. In order to elucidate the content of and reasons behind the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, the president of CORCAS has given several interviews with a number of international satellite televisions. Among the most important of these, one could cite "Al-Jazeera," "Al-Jazeera mobachir," "Al-Hourra," "the Spanish channel "Canal Sur Noticias," and the channel "Canal Sur." With respect to public virtual diplomacy, the Internet site remains for CORCAS an effective tool for the transmission of information, and of interaction with the targeted public opinion abroad. It also constitutes a means whereby CORCAS develops its ties with different actors of civil society throughout the world. Indeed, the data that this site contains are formulated in eight languages; namely- Arabic, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German and Italian, a fact which is designed to widen the scope of potential interlocutors, particularly because international public opinion is today of considerable importance, and constitutes a real diplomatic stake for all countries throughout the world. Equally important in this respect is cultural diplomacy, which is deemed to be one of the most important manifestations of public diplomacy. It could, in fact, strengthen the international activity of CORCAS, more particularly so because the provinces of the South enjoy a singular cultural patrimony. In view of this, the cultural particularism which marks the Sahara region constitutes a favorable element for the sector of tourism as well as that of investments, which will contribute towards giving Morocco the image of a country that has a markedly coherent diversity in terms of identity. II. the questions linked to the international activities of corcas Besides its mission which consists of defending the Moroccan Autonomy Project, CORCAS is responsible of a host of broader international missions. It is in a general manner concerned with the defense of the unity and territorial integrity of the Kingdom, in addition to its participation, at the international level, in highlighting the different attractive aspects of today's Morocco. A. the role of corcas in the defense of the moroccanity of the sahara The defense of the Moroccanness of the Sahara at the international level constitutes a central point of concern for CORCAS. This mission makes of the latter one of the major interlocutors on the international scene as far as the Moroccan Sahara affair is concerned, as provided for in Article 10 of the Dahir relative to the creation of CORCAS. According to this article, the president of CORCAS is the official spokesman of the Council, and is the official interlocutor with the national public authorities, as well as with international organizations and committees. To assign CORCAS a mission such as this could be explained by the fact that today's world is marked by a certain distribution of functions in connection with foreign policy among the different specialized bodies. The latter are called upon to effectively defend all the affairs that fall within the area of their competence. Indeed, the putting in place of CORCAS constitutes a certain response to this new international factor. Yet, it is to be noted that this Council does not represent a mere technical or even administrative, institution. CORCAS is a representative and advisory body that is strongly attached to the Sahara region, a fact which endows it with a two-leveled kind of representativeness: national and international. The latter has imbued the discourse and work of CORCAS with much more credibility, which accounts for the fact that this institution is the most apt to represent the populations of the Sahara. Obviously, this situation is far from being profitable to the Polisario Front, which claimed to have monopoly over the representation of the populations of this region, hence the confused attitude of the Polisario Front during the Manhasset negotiations, because the members of CORCAS were among the members of the Moroccan delegation. The participation of CORCAS, led by the official Moroccan delegation, in the four rounds in Manhasset, New York, under the aegis of the United Nations, coupled with different other such meetings and visits organized by CORCAS, with personalities and institutions both in Morocco and abroad, constitute the most important manifestation of the effective participation of this Council in the decision-making process on the Moroccan Sahara affair. Hence, the setting up of CORCAS constitutes a certain concretization of this new approach in Moroccan diplomacy. B. the participation of corcas in the administration of moroccan foreign policy As we have already mentioned, the consultative function of CORCAS is not confined to the Moroccan Autonomy Project. In fact, this institution acts on other subjects in relation to Moroccan foreign policy, more specifically those bearing upon the question of national unity and territorial integrity, a fact which is made explicit in Articles 1 and 2 of the Dahir relative to the creation of CORCAS. According to Article 1 of the so-called Dahir, CORCAS has for a principal mission to assist the King in all the affairs that fall within the area of the defense of national unity and territorial integrity. The second article, in turn, lists the different prerogatives given to CORCAS. One could notably cite the prerogative of voicing its opinion on all sorts of questions-- general and particular ones alike-- in connection with the territorial integrity and national unity of the Kingdom. In fact, the creation by CORCAS of a Commission for foreign affairs and cooperation, in addition to four other commissions, shows that the preoccupations of CORCAS are far from being solely limited to the Moroccan Sahara affair. Hence, economic diplomacy constitutes another domain wherein CORCAS could intervene in an active manner, not only by laying out the assets of the Sahara region, but also by highlighting the evolution that Morocco has especially witnessed at the level of its legislation in the area of the laws relative to direct foreign investments. Moreover, CORCAS manifests interest in the question of Human rights. It was thus that the Vice-president of CORCAS, Mr. Ahmed Mghizlat, participated, on 8 April 2008, along with a Moroccan delegation presided by the minister of justice, Mr. Abdelwahed Radi, in the meeting by the work group of the UN Human Rights Council in charge of the universal periodical examination of Human rights situations. Besides, some CORCAS delegations regularly pay visits to Geneva in order to acquaint the responsible officials there with the Human rights situation of the sequestered in Tindouf, as well as with the atrocities perpetrated by the Polisario leaders there. Conclusion The crucial phase that the question of the Sahara currently goes through at the international plane accounts for the reinforcement of the international activity of CORCAS, which equally justifies the diversification of its contacts abroad, and the growing part accorded to international NGO's, as well as the actors of international civil society. The Moroccan residing abroad, above all those who come from the provinces of the Moroccan South, could materialize into a truly strong point in favor of Morocco. In fact, they could support CORCAS in its mission at the international plane. Finally, the NGO's which have come to be active in the provinces of the South could also constitute major actors in the promotion of the activities of CORCAS on the international scene. They would do so by participating in the campaigns that the latter organizes in different capitals all over the world, as well as at international organizations. In point of fact, the national NGO's maintain relations of cooperation and friendship with several other NGO's throughout the world. Besides, they enjoy a certain credibility within the international assemblies where the representatives of international civil society come to attend. Said SADDIKI
Professor at the faculty of law, Fez
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