David Stenner

Globalizing Morocco

Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

David Stenner is Assistant Professor of History at Christopher Newport University.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 312
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. Mai 2019
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 226mm x 152mm x 28mm
• Gewicht: 499g
• ISBN-13: 9781503608993
• ISBN-10: 1503608999
• Artikelnr.: 53542839

Autorenporträt

David Stenner is Assistant Professor of History at Christopher Newport University.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: Networked Anticolonial Activism
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces the reader to the history of colonial Morocco and
the nationalist movement before engaging with the scholarship on
decolonization and the early Cold War. It specifically explores the
following issues: How did the Moroccan nationalists successfully
internationalize their call for an independent constitutional monarchy? How
did they communicate their message abroad? What role did their
transnational activism have on the process of state-formation following the
end of the French and Spanish protectorates in 1956? In order to answer
these questions, the chapter engages with social network analysis to
demonstrate how Sultan Mohamed ben Youssef managed to weaken the political
opposition after independence by co-opting the central players behind their
international anticolonial campaign. The monarch thereby obtained the
pivotal social and human capital necessary to secure the hegemony of the
Alaoui royal family.
1Tangier: Gateway to the World
chapter abstract
This chapter describes how the Moroccans made Tangier the central hub of
their transnational advocacy campaign. In April 1951, the country's four
anticolonial parties signed the National Pact to coordinate their
activities on the exterior. Benefiting from the international city's unique
legal status, they facilitated the flow of information and resources
between the two protectorates and their propaganda offices abroad. Several
US businessmen and the American Federation of Labor supported their
activities against the explicit will of the US State Department. Moreover,
the Moroccans recruited a couple of English journalists visiting the
northern port city and thereby managed to bring their message to the
Anglophone world.
2Cairo: The Search for Arab Solidarity
chapter abstract
This chapter deals with the first Moroccan delegates to the Arab League in
1946, who eventually cofounded the Office of the Arab Maghrib together with
activists from Algeria and Tunisia. Despite several setbacks, the North
African nationalists achieved a series of impressive publicity successes
that attracted the attention of the Islamic world at a time when most Arabs
remained predominantly concerned with the issue of Palestine. But their
campaign came to an abrupt halt when the Free Officers overthrew the
Egyptian monarchy in July 1952 and established a revolutionary republic.
Despite its public embrace of Pan-Arabism, the new regime undermined the
Moroccan nationalists' activities in the Middle East by destabilizing their
local network of supporters. The Arab League thus failed to provide
substantive diplomatic support to the Moroccan campaign for independence.
3Paris: Conquering the Metropole
chapter abstract
This chapter describes the nationalist propaganda activities in Paris
following World War II. Organized around the Bureau du Parti de l'Istiqlal
and supported by the large local community of Moroccan workers and
students, the nationalists convinced many French elites of their demands. A
heterogeneous alliance of both leftist politicians and Catholic
intellectuals helped them bring the case of Morocco to public attention in
the wake of a massacre committed by French troops in Casablanca in December
1952. The nationalists also lobbied the UN General Assembly, which met in
Paris in 1948 and 1951, but without great success. Nonetheless, by the fall
of 1955, a majority of delegates in the National Assembly opposed a
continuation of the protectorate regime.
4New York: Capital of Diplomacy
chapter abstract
This chapter examines how the nationalist movement sent its first delegate
on a temporary assignment to the United Nations in 1947, where he created a
large network of contacts in the corridors of the UN building in Lake
Placid and drew considerable attention to the Moroccan case. By 1952, the
anticolonial activists finally opened their permanent bureau, the Moroccan
Office of Information and Documentation, in New York. Supported by their
British mentor Rom Landau, they lobbied the American public and politicians
as well as the diplomatic delegations to the UN through personal contacts
and an elaborate media campaign. Deeply worried by these achievements,
France conducted counterpropaganda to undermine their efforts. Although
neither the Truman nor the Eisenhower administration openly embraced their
demands, the Moroccans' activism in the United States put great
international pressure on the government in Paris.
5Rabat: The Homecoming
chapter abstract
This chapter deals with the process of state-formation after independence
in 1956, which culminated in a power struggle between the royal palace and
the Istiqlal Party. The now-king Mohamed V managed to co-opt the central
nodes of the nationalist movement's transnational network of supporters by
recruiting many of its members to work for the royal palace or sending them
abroad as ambassadors. He thereby increased the social capital at his
disposal while simultaneously weakening the Istiqlal. Even the
nationalists' foreign associates now publicly embraced the monarch and thus
legitimized his status. His successful state visit to the United States in
November 1957 symbolized the triumph of the king, who had replaced the
nationalist movement as the sole representative of the Moroccan nation.
Conclusion: Decolonization Reconsidered
chapter abstract
The conclusion discusses the larger insights gained from studying the
history of the Moroccan liberation struggle. It reevaluates the process of
decolonization by looking at the continuities between the colonial era and
the postcolonial state. Moreover, it emphasizes the important roles played
by nonstate actors in the making of the post-1945 international order
despite the constraints imposed on them by the binary logic of the Cold
War. Finally, it demonstrates that the pro-Western foreign policy pursued
by the Moroccans after 1956 resulted from the nationalist movement's global
campaign for independence. The legacy of the propaganda offices in New
York, Cairo, and Paris thus continues to shape the North African kingdom
today.