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

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 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,

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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 I was shown

a couple of examples about this and 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

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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

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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

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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-to-

day 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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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 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

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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.

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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.

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