Internship Report

Al Akhawayn University School of Humanities and Social Sciences

INTERNSHIP REPORT

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation

Name: Ismail KHEJJOU Supervisor: Dr. Jack Kalpakian

Date July 4-august 4, 2008

1

As a graduate student majoring in International Studies and Diplomacy, this summer I had to do an internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs And Cooperation. I was a little bit confused because I did not have a clear idea of what I would be expected to do.

As I joined the Ministry, however, things became clearer

and I realized that I had an incredible opportunity in the sense that I would work in an environment that is closer to my major.

This is my first day at the ministry of foreign affairs. I was introduced to people and the different sections in the direction of legal affairs and treaties. One of those people received me in his office and talked to me generally about the Ministry of foreign affairs and its mission. The first week of my internship was a more orientation to the direction where I had to work. The structural organization of the ministry of Foreign Affairs And Cooperation is based on two large sections. the first one is the general direction of Bilateral relations under which falls other departments such as European Affairs, African Affairs, American Affairs…etc The second section is the general direction of Multilateral Relations and Global cooperation. Under this section, there are many directions one of which is the department where I did my two months internship; the Direction of legal Affairs and Treaties. This direction is largely concerned with legal aspects regarding conventions,

2

agreements, protocols and international regulations that relate Morocco to foreign countries.

Furthermore, it gives serious

importance to the necessary procedures, approvals, ratification, acceptance and the publication of these agreements. Equally important, the Direction of Legal Affairs and Treaties has another mission which is being aware of diplomatic and consular conflicts as well as all legal aspects related to exterior activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

During my first week, I learnt that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs deals with what takes place at the international level such as the signature of agreements and conventions with foreign countries. Another thing I learnt is how conferences and governmental representation are held with connection to this ministry. Because I was employed in the direction of legal affairs and Treaties, I had to look , as a first step,

at

how Morocco signs agreements with other countries, be it in the field of agriculture, industry or environment...etc a couple of examples about this and

I was shown

through my discussion with

an employee, I understood that it is the minister who grants full permission so that any kind of International agreement or convention can be signed with other foreign countries.

I liked my work a lot and because I was given the chance to

3

suggest other things I wanted do, I asked for permission to work on diplomatic archives concerning Morocco-U.S relations. So, I was allowed to do this and I happily started working on the protocol of agreement between the United States and the Kingdom of Morocco regarding the relay station of

"the voice of

America."

This agreement was signed on March 1, 1984. I found it extremely interesting and the kind of work I was required to do was to go over the file and see the important steps and procedures taken towards signing the agreement. I made this pretty much clearer through the chronological arrangement of the file and then I Started examining the diplomatic notes exchanged between the two countries.

Beside this, I was asked to do a

search on some terms such as Protocole, Diplomatic letters, Bilateral and Multilateral agreement....etc This is because they appear constantly on the agreement and without a prior understanding of these concepts I would miss

the most important

part of my work. Later on my supervisor asked me to look closely at the file and do a summary of the important points and then I had to answer a couple of questions which he gave me later.

As I was reading through this agreement between Morocco and The United states, I learned how negotiations are made

4

between the two parties. Most importantly, I knew that before two countries sign any agreement, there should be an exchange of diplomatic notes through the embassies of each country. Still, this correspondence may take several years before both parties agree on the signature of the final modifications and only after this that the agreement enters into force.

One of the questions that I faced constantly is that why does an agreement take years and years to have two countries sign it?

My discussion with one of the colleagues reveals to me

that there are some legitimate reasons for this one of which is the political willingness of one country. Two countries may spend a great deal of time exchanging letters and discussing the possibility of singing an agreement but one of them may express the lack of its political will through slowing down the process toward the final act. In the third week of my internship I was asked to review Veterinary Sanitary Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco and The Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. In this particular work, I had the opportunity to meet and work with Mr BYRON AMARAL DOS SANTOS; a responsible for legal affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brazil. The task was to compare the English and Arabic

5

version of the agreement mentioned above. In doing this, Mr BYRON and I suggested some modifications and changes that had to do mostly with certain terms in the English version. In terms of what I learned in this particular task, I was able to understand that the use of concepts has to be precise and accurate so that there is no misunderstanding between the parties who are willing to sign the agreement.

On a more serious note, this opportunity was of useful help in the sense that I had to pay attention and be careful with certain concepts that could change the meaning of the context. The most significant part of this work came later when I was invited to the official meeting of the signature of this agreement. Attending this reunion gave me not only the opportunity to observe the formalities of the agreement, but also to see and experience an example of the real world day-today international relations in an institution at the forefront of foreign policy-making.

To this point, the internship was really good. I was given the chance and highly encouraged to arise questions and express my reflections on the issues at hand. Interestingly, the various tasks that I was assigned exposed me to different areas of interests mainly in Moroccan-American relations. As I moved

6

on, I realized that I have developed systematic way of analyzing official documents and summarizing large amounts of information. Still interested in diplomatic archives, I was required to review the convention between the kingdom of morocco and the united states of America on mutual assistance in criminal matter. The primary purpose of this agreement, which was signed on October 17, 1983, is to provide mutual assistance relating to investigations, proceedings, the taking of testimony or statements of witnesses, and services of documents. I provided synopses on certain points and what I learned in this particular work is of great importance as in other tasks that I examined before. In essence, I discovered the official way of Diplomatic writing and its significance in the context of international relations. I took some time to read a couple of exchanged diplomatic notes in order to better grasp the acceptable form of communication.

Another work that I was asked to do was to read the agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Government of the United State of America concerning the development of trade and investment relations. It took me time to finish my work in this particular file, but I cannot say that it did not add anything to my knowledge. In addition to preparing summaries, one other activity that I sometimes had to

7

is translation. I liked it very much simply because it helped me broaden my knowledge of the work I had to do and meanwhile put me in a position to use my Arabic language skills extensively.

Working on diplomatic archives was really a fruitful experiment because it allowed me to gain a professional experience. To tell the truth, sometimes I had to listen to my colleague explaining to me how and why some tasks are done in a specific way. At this particular stage of my internship, I learnt to be a good listener and it helped me broaden my understanding and evaluate what I learnt.

I was also given the opportunity to study the agreement for cooperation between the Government of the kingdom of Morocco and the Government of the United States of America concerning Peaceful uses of Nuclear Energy. This agreement was signed at Washington on May 30, 1980. The objective that this convention came up with was to strengthen U.S-Moroccan relations and, most importantly, reaffirm their commitment and support for the objective of the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Another aim was also protecting the international environment form radioactive, chemical and thermal contamination. The benefit of this bilateral agreement lies in the fact that it would promote co-operation in different fields

8

such as research, development and technology…etc

Moving from U.S-Moroccan relations, I was asked to read the convention between the Republic of Latvia and the Kingdom of Morocco for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on income. I was granted the responsibility of comparing the English and Arabic version of the agreement regarding the similarity between the two texts. I made some remarks concerning language that I thought should be changed or modified. In addition, I worked on the convention between Morocco and the OPEC Fund. OPEC is the development Finance Institution of Member State of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. My work focused largely on exploring the different domains in which OPEC provided help to Morocco such as the agreement for the Encouragement and Protection of Investment, and supporting projects in the agriculture, education, health, water supply and energy sectors.

The reason why I wanted to examine this particular file was to learn something new about Moroccan-European relations. My curiosity enabled me to understand that the OPEC Funs is mandated to pursue solidarity among countries of south and promote cooperation between its member states and other developing countries. Based on my readings of some documents, I

9

learnt that the overall objective of the OPEC Fund is the social and economic advancement of the latter countries.

My growing concerns regarding bilateral agreements raised my curiosity to acquire an idea about other countries and their relation with Morocco. Working on diplomatic archives was, to a great extent, a learning experience because it brought so many questions to my mind, and I was welcomed to discuss them with other colleagues. Obviously, this gave me the chance to interact and communicate my ideas with people who have had more than fifteen years of experience. I wished I have done so many things during my two months internship but it is said that “Learning is a lifelong process.”

This week, I read the agreement on trade between the government of Australia and the government of the kingdom of Morocco. My task was to go over the diplomatic notes and articles that the two countries agreed on. The objective of this agreement was mainly to promote and expand mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation between their two countries. As in other agreements, Australia and Morocco made this operation easier through encouraging and facilitating law regulations of each of them.

10

After my days were over I asked for permission to learn about the Sahara issue.

In this particular task, I read reports

of meetings that were adopted by the Security Council. In fact, during the early days of my internship I was advised by one of the colleagues to get to know more about the issue of Sahara. My reading of and reflection on reports was of great help for me in the sense that I was able to see what the Moroccan Diplomacy has done concerning this subject. In this context, the Security Council reaffirmed its commitment to assist the parties to achieve a just and mutually acceptable political solution which would provide for the self-determination of the people of West Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the charter of the United Nations. On a more serious note, reports revealed that Morocco has always showed its real will to end this conflict through the proposal of Self-determination as a convenient political solution. Equally important, this suggestion is considered a significant and historical opportunity that would enable to build a united and democratic Morocco. However, a number of Moroccan governmental representatives came to see that Algeria and Polisario Front have not seriously expressed their interest to work out this problem.

I still had five days to finish my internship. I

11

voluntarily asked for permission to spend some time in the direction of American Affairs. The reason for this was nothing more than to gain a general idea and deepen my understanding about Moroccan-US relations. I was welcomed by a number of kind people and it was a unique opportunity for me to just listen to what some people had to say about their specialization in the Direction of American Affairs. More than anything else, this Direction is mainly characterized by political concerns which I found interesting.

Unlike the Direction of Legal Affairs and

Treaties, American Affairs considers issues that have political concerns and which play a vital role in Morocco`s foreign policy. In essence, I learnt that before Morocco starts any kind of relations with foreign countries, it gives serious concern to the Sahara issue as it is an important political matter to day.

To sum up, this internship was great on many levels in the sense that it gave me a practical experience that helped me learn a number of things. My reflection on my two months internship made me come up with certain propositions that, I think, may help make things better in the future. I believe that it would be better if the two months internship can be spent separately in two different directions. The reason why I am suggesting this is to have the opportunity to learn more and get to know as much as possible about the workings of the ministry.

12

Undoubtedly, The ministry of foreign affairs is an interesting place and I would propose if there is the possibility of knowing a head of time in which direction one is expected to intern. Having said this, I have to say that this amazing internship contributed to my personal development in the sense that it gave me an incredible opportunity to work in an environment that is related to my area of study. At this point, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences for making this internship possible.

13