Exploring U.N.-led Negotiation processes: The case of the Manhasset rounds between Morocco and the POLISARIO

This study explores the stalemate in the U.N.-led Negotiations between Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO on the status of the "Western Sahara" territory. It suggests that the U.N., as a host and mediator of these rounds, has had a significant impact on the process and that it shares responsibility for the current stalemate. It asserts that Bercovitch's contingency framework applies generically to the Manhasset case and provides a modified version of it that better correspond to mediations by Personal Envoys of the U.N. Secretary General. Finally, this study proposes an alternative mediation approach to the "Western Sahara" conflict that calls for a Moroccan engagement of Algeria through a secret track in parallel to the official U.N.-led Morocco-POLISARIO one.