The US’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty on the Western Sahara (2020): tracing the origins of a controversial decision

This thesis examines U.S. policy toward Western Sahara from 1975 to 2025, combining a guided review of the literature with analysis of public sources (presidential/State statements, Congressional Record, UN documentation). Chapter 2 maps what historiography accepts and what remains contested, showing a durable UN-centred posture shaped by alliance-balancing and legal caution. Chapter 3 reconstructs the December 2020 U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty—its timeline, actors and texts—testing the quid pro quo hypothesis around Morocco–Israel normalisation and setting it against the de facto trajectory of prior practice. An epilogue reads UNSC Resolution 2797 (31 Oct 2025) as a multilateral afterlife that, albeit within UN parameters, shifts diplomatic gravity toward autonomy as the negotiating basis.