The Western Sahara Dispute: A Cautionary Tale for Peacebuilders
The UN and MINURSO have succeeded neither inconducting a referendum nor in fostering a negotiated solution to the problem. Indeed,the Secretariat and the Security Council missed two chances to suspend what has becomea self-perpetuating ‘peace process’; if they had taken advantage of these opportunitiesand suspended negotiations, the parties would have had to rethink their positions andperhaps entered into more serious negotiations aimed at reaching some sort of compromise.
Saharan stasis: Status and future prospects of the Western Sahara conflict
The nine-year United Nations effort to hold a "winner-take-all" referendum in Western Sahara is stalemated by fundamental difference as to who should be allowed to vote. The United Nations is pessimistic that such a vote can ever be taken.