ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issue of territoriality in a specific context: the Spanish-Moroccan border. This case is especially interesting since its territorial controversies have been overlooked. There has been a tendency during the past few decades to consider territoriality, borders, and every concept associated with 'Westphalia' as being obsolete. Indeed, in the vast majority of the cases, territorial borders have little to do with geographical borders but with struggles for power, wars, religion, identity, and the expansion and decline of different empires, among other historical processes. Thus, the geographical border between Spain and Morocco does not coincide with the current territorial borders due to the Muslim decline/Christian expansion which took place in the 15th century. There have been numerous attempts to conceptualize the nature of the relationship between Spain and Morocco. There is a trend toward likening the relationship to a pendulum that easily oscillates from positive to negative moments.
