Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel (ret.) January 18, 2018 A recently discovered letter, dated September 1986, from Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger to King Hassan II, revealed an end to a two-year split between the United States and Morocco over a Libya-Morocco detente, and underscored the importance of reestablishing our close and respectful bilateral relationship during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Weinberger’s letter notes his pleasure with King Hassan’s decision to
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Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel (ret.) January 17, 2018 The recently published Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2018 rated Morocco 100 out of 165 countries, and third in the MENA region, after Israel and Tunisia. The Index covers “almost” the entire world population and is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government political participation, and political culture. Based upon the scoring of these
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Jean R. AbiNader January 12, 2019 Unrest in many regions of Morocco during 2018 and the ongoing strikes in 2019, called by the labor unions and joined by Moroccans of all classes, are emblematic of the contradictions at the core of the country’s uneven development. Among issues raised by the unions are the need to restart the country’s national social dialogue, the government’s alleged failure to exercise sufficient efforts to
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Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel (ret.) December 25, 2018 The Christmas season is a time to be filled with joy and hope for peace in the world. Christmas 2000 was also a time when peace between the Israelis and Palestinians was front and center on the world stage, and the US was the predominant key player in this effort. It was also a time when King Mohammed VI played a vital
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Dave Christian December 23, 2018 A recent article in Morocco on the Move caught my eye and inspired me to respond. The article reviewed the Legatum Prosperity Index for 2018 in which Morocco was placed at #103 in the entire index of 149 countries. Are there really 102 countries better than Morocco? As part of Kerr-McGee’s oil exploration program in Morocco during the early 2000s, I find this statistic hard
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