Introduction
My two-month internship in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation was an advisable experience as it helped me gain significant and Professional knowledge about just how Moroccan diplomacy is exercised by carrying out different ministerial jobs and witnessing the way work is performed in the ministry from translating documents to writing accounts. My interest in International Studies and Political Research as a location of study dates back to my high school when I was keen on studying Philosophy, Background and Geography. Although while i went to university I picked British Studies as my major, my growing affinity for International Relations was reawaken after my three years of taking English Studies at Hassan II School, when I visited study Political Knowledge at Beloit College or university under the PLUS Scholarship. The internship which i got in the ministry corresponds to my carrier hobbies and university major; it was also an possibility to compare my experience as an intern at the Office of Tammy Baldwin in Beloit, Wisconsin that dated back again to 2008 with my current internship in the ministry. My internship report is split into four main parts; the first one is concerned with giving short information about the ministry and its own missions, the second one is concerned with responsibilities and tasks that we was assigned to do in my internships, the third one is specialized in the data and experience which i learned and lastly the fourth section includes my critical diagnosis of my internship in the ministry by discovering things that I wish to change easily am to work in the ministry and looking at it to my previous internship in the USA.
The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation is one of the four ministries in Morocco where the ministers are directly appointed by the ruler. It is concerned with the foreign insurance policy of Morocco and taking care of its diplomatic relationships with international countries and non-state actors like the UN. The existing Foreign Minister is Mr. Taieb Fassi Fihri and his secretary basic is Mrs. Latfia Akherbash.
The ministry undertakes various functions that may be summarized into six missions: The first one is to operate a vehicle the diplomatic action of Morocco by representing its interest at the international level, insuring the development of international cooperation and coordinating the foreign relationships of Morocco. The second point is to serve as the official representative of the monarchy before foreign countries and international and regional organizations, therefore any communication or contract between a international country and Morocco must first go through the ministry before getting its direct vacation spot in the kingdom. The 3rd mission is to be involved in the preparations of conferences and conferences at the international level and signifies the monarchy in those manifestations. The fourth missions are to carry out negotiations of contracts, conventions and treaties that have politics and diplomatic personality and to organize the economical, political and communal engagements of Morocco. Furthermore, apart from treaties, the ministry gets the power to renew or reject any discussion if it is deemed never to be in the interest of the kingdom. The fifth quest is to cover the security of the protection under the law of Moroccans living in foreign countries and foreign people taking refugee in the monarchy, in addition to that the ministry also coordinates the actions of the public services situated outside of the country. Finally the ministry gets the responsibility to see regularly the federal government about the position of Morocco's foreign relations.
As much as the composition of the ministry can be involved, it is divided into two main parts: the path of bilateral relations and the way of Multilateral relationships and global assistance, the former guidelines is further split into five divisions corresponding to geographical locations such as Arab and Islamic Affairs Section, African Affairs Division, and North american Affairs Division. . . . as the second direction can be involved with Morocco's relations with non-state celebrities, international organizations and multilateral assistance. This direction contains many sub-directions like Standard protocol, Cultural and Scientific Assistance Direction. . . My designated section was the American Affairs Division which is split into two main services: Political Affairs Service and Bilateral Assistance Service, I got given to the Political Affairs Service pretty much in the American and Caribbean section. What sort of American continent is divided in the ministry is dependant on linguistic rather geographic requirements, where Central and SOUTH USA speak Spanish and Portuguese while in THE UNITED STATES and the Caribbean it is English that dominates as the state language. Because of this, two sections can be found within the office of North american Affairs one concerned with the spot of North America and the Caribbean and the other worried about Central and South America. The Political Affairs Service is mainly mixed up in politics and diplomatic aspects of Morocco's foreign plan in harmony with its relations with the American continent. it was interesting to note the that Morocco before starting or renewing any relation with a country an enormous emphasis is put on the Sahara concern which stand for the nationwide cause number one in the ministry. The main tasks of the path will be the diplomatic and political negotiations of bilateral accords and the coordination of the surface engagements that can be financial, commercial or cultural.
The Tasks I Accomplished INSIDE THE Ministry Of Foreign Affairs And Cooperation
Mr. Abderrahim Errehali, who's accountable for the politics affairs of the Americas, was my supervisor who released me to the staff that work in the section, the most dominant characteristics i seen in the American Affairs division is the hierarchical framework that the ministry follows where the director of the North american section, Mr. Fouad Yazourh, reaches the top of the team followed by chief of the Political Affairs Section, who's my supervisor, and with an equal position is Mrs. Farida Loudaya Who is the chief of the Bilateral Co-operation Service, then accompanied by Mr. Mostafa Rezzouk. And lastly the hierarchy ends with the workers and the secretaries.
The main jobs which i was allocated to do in my internship tend to fall on clerical obligations that vary from translating documents to writing reports. One of the most frequent tasks i was asked to do during my internship in the ministry was to convert documents mainly from British to Arabic or to French and vice versa, the duty is of an huge importance to the ministry especially in my department, Because the monarchy has special relations with the united states which is crucial to make its points of view recognized in the us and vice versa. The documents i was allocated to render, include public correspondence with various embassies of Northern America and Caribbean countries, meetings accounts and the platform of future meetings. . . The translation was a worthwhile experience since it did not only make me sharpen my English vocabulary but also my French and Arabic ones, especially in the domain of diplomacy. the internship was also an chance to have an event in making formal translations by paying attention to the salutations and providing each political body his own admiration, a point containing regarding ethnical difference between Arabic, France and English that must be carefully considered to avoid any misinterpretations and fatal errors.
One of the very most frequent tasks that I was assigned to attempt are performing research and summarizing public documents and reports, the study process was an enriching activity as it was an opportunity me to learn much information about issues that demand thorough understanding in the ministry. I made research about various things like the talk that Obama shipped in Cairo in June 4, 2009, the economic crisis and its results on governance and the new American ambassador Mr. Samuel L. Kaplan in Rabat. . .
It is also very important to keep yourself updated and have a crucial evaluation of the international situations that does only have to do with Morocco but also with different countries on the globe. For instance, in my own division the expulsion of two Canadian diplomats by Russia in and its own aftermath was an important event to write a written report about and impart it to the director. hence, One of the tasks that are necessary in the ministry is usually to be modified of any record or article that refer to Morocco, mainly from the North american think tanks, and within my stay I used to be asked to prepare summaries about the primary points mentioned about the kingdom in the individuals trafficking report shared by the UN, the Economic Freedom Index shared by the Traditions Base and also about two records that came out in the International Problems Group website: one about the problem of Sahara and the other about the problem of Algerian armament.
Furthermore, I was also asked to write congratulatory letters to congratulate particular countries for the party of their nationwide days and nights, my colleague in the office released me to the way congratulatory characters are written and I drafted three congratulatory characters for Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Saint Kitties. He also proved me other types of words that are usually drafted in the ministry: just like a letter to congratulate a specific country upon such events as being successful elections or even to point out condolences for a unfortunate event.
In the next 50 % of my internship I asked my supervisor easily can work over a project or a concern that relates to the American Section and he assigned me to do some research about the Free Trade Arrangement between Morocco and the USA. In order to access the archives my supervisor launched me to Mrs. Houda Zemmouri, the individual accountable for the FTA arrangement in the division, who provided me with usage of the archives and showed me the summaries of the seminar "Maximizing Trade with the United States" that happened in Casablanca in 9 and 10 June, 2009. Mrs. Zemmouri recommended me to make a standard research about the FTA while watching the current performance of the Moroccan current economic climate and comparison it with similar Middle Eastern countries that agreed upon free trade contracts with the united states, especially Egypt and Jordan. The purpose of utilizing assessment is to find Morocco's strong and weak points and culminating it by attracting recommendations in respect of the assessment results so that Morocco would proficiently benefit from the agreement. As far as my research methods are concerned, I relied on the documents from the archives which were provided to me by Mrs. Huda Zemmouri who was very accommodating and prepared to lend a hand, I also relied on the internet, mainly the website of the FTA that provided the agreement's articles online. Moreover, web sites of the Moroccan magazines such as La Vie Economique and L`Economist, were very useful. I started my research giving a historical point of view of the US-Moroccan relationship that dated back to 1978, when Morocco was the first country to identify the self-reliance of the United States, a fact that was talked about by Leader Obama in his Cairo conversation. Then I talked about the execution of the FTA, its rules and how these are meet and my last part was devoted to contrast the performance of Morocco with the people of Egypt and Jordan after their personal of Free Trade Agreements and predicated on the evaluation I made a summary by stating the value of the FTA for both Morocco to make its current economic climate more competitive as well as for the USA to consider good thing about what Morocco offers and make a good example to lead the MAFTA that is timetable to get started on in 2012. In the end, I provided my finished work to my supervisor who required a glance at it and ask me to make some alteration to the ultimate version.
The Knowledge I Obtained From My Internship
It was very interesting to note the utilization of terms in the ministry, although the state vocabulary in Morocco is Arabic, the terminology that is still frequently used in the office is French with some variations from one division to another, and what I've noticed is that whenever a notice from the united states embassy is sent to the ministry that is concerned with the parliament or the area it is very important to follow the formal correspondence with Arabic equivalent. However, when the letter is directed to some other ministries, like Ministry of Finance, it is very important that a France translation must come with the letter as the use of Arabic is rare, a thing that I also recognized whenever i was delving in the archives of the FTA between Morocco and USA where I seldom come across an Arabic doc whereas there is a plethora of French documents.
When I got focusing on the job I noticed the way meeting summaries were carried out, usually in French, with the first page being focused on the headings (subject, time. . . ) and the center is a summary of the main things that were reviewed in the discussion while the previous site includes the labels of the members and their titles, phones and e-mails. Working on the task was very valuable because it made research a concern of utmost importance to Morocco and gain knowledge in it. For instance, the project added to my learning that the FTA was authorized in 2004 but do enter into make until 2006 because of the issue of Morocco's concern about its economy and culture to meet some All of us criteria that are fragile to the kingdom, mainly the copyrights laws and regulations (Vacations) and the results of the inflow folks agricultural products on Morocco's economy such as wheat and reaching the WHO SPSS requirements. It is interesting to note that Morocco is the fourth country to sign an arrangement with the US, upon the initiation of the FTA with the united states the quantity of bilateral trade exchange between the two countries experienced a rise. The targeted establishments in Morocco are textile, leather and agriculture. Furthermore, Morocco authorized many free trade agreements countries with 54 countries.
In my assessment I pointed out that Morocco compared to Jordan and Egypt has higher labor cost in addition to its reliance on Europe to buy dietary fiber on the other hand with the geographic proximity of Egypt and Jordan to cheap fiber content suppliers such as: India an Turkey.
I learned a whole lot of information by reading various accounts that are posted by different US think tanks like World Traditions and International Crisis
The issue of Sahara is essential to Morocco's international coverage as it the countrywide cause number the one which the morocco is attempting to solve through diplomatic means by persuading countries to not recognize RASD or even to suspend their identification for countries that curently have connection with Polisario. in my own internships I travelled into discussions about the subject and the countries that recognize the Polis Rio while none of them of the major power acknowledge it, of the 46 countries that identify RASD, most of them come from Africa and Latin America particularly in the Caribbean where in fact the only country that hasn't recognized RASD there is Bahamas and among those who known RASD only Saint Lucia and Dominica canceled their popularity in 1989 and Dominican republic in 2002. Moreover, of the four 4 countries that will not recognize RASD were in favor three of these voted in favor of the Algerian proposal in 2006 a fact which portray to the need of more diplomatic relations. The fact that Caribbean countries regarded RASD did not prevent Morocco from building political and economic and cultural relations with the Caribbean. For instance, as afar as ethnical cooperation is concerned, there is a program that is funded by the ministry that grants or loans scholarships to Caribbean students to study in Al Akhawayn University or college. However, Morocco performed only lower its diplomatic relationships with two major countries in the region Cuba in 1980 and Venezuela in '09 2009 due to their acknowledgement of RASD and establishment of its embassies in their countries.
The wide matter in the United States over the surge of the radical departed in America especially in Venezuela and Bolivia was also a distributed matter for Morocco, leftist government mainly those forming alliance with Hugo or what is called the populist kept in contrast with the center still left of Brazil and Chile as they may have the potential to support polisario.
I gain enormous understanding of the Caribbean countries during my internship, although the spot is geographical small with 17 countries. One of the most striking point that I learned, apart from the fact of being the best place that support polisario, is the way it constituted, as much countries in central America and South America are also included in the area. Like Belize, Surinam, cooperative republic of Guyana which are belong to that area fro historical, linguistic and cultural reasons as the majority of those countries speak British and tend to have a rupture with the Spanish countries in Central and South America. Furthermore to Venezuela that has strong presence there. The region is untied under one local company called CARICOM (Caribbean Community) where only 2 countries aren't included: Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The Vienna convention: Both major incidents that proclaimed the Ministry was when Ben abdellah was asked to come to Morocco and the situation of Norwegian embassy and its own complicity in the abduction of the two children of the past athlete Mr. Sekkah
Benefits of Translation the type of working in public administration especially in the ministry
The way diplomatic relationships are conducted: size and time that treaties and contracts take, signing treating between two countries is very challenging process that takes a long time because of the aim of both countries to avoid any misunderstanding that would jeopardize their arrangement, and this is the reason why the procedure of translation is an enormous where the primary process is to compare the initial document and its own translation to see if there are any words that may alter the meaning of the treaty.
The courses that helped me in the process: US-Maghreb Relations: FTA, Piracy,
The Elements That I Want To Alter WITHIN THE Ministry
My internship in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation was a rewarding; however my experience in the ministry could have been more beneficial and effective if certain conditions were provided. First, the AUI should provide college student who are willing to intern in the ministry with contact information of Alumni university student working in the ministry so as to make the incoming interns alert to the type of the task they must be expecting and offer them with sources to answer questions they have got about their internship. Second, it would more effective if student know of their assigned department in advance so that they will not be shocked by their team on their first day in addition to make sure they are avoid going through the transfer. Third, taking particular classes before doing an internship will be helpful, mainly the classes of Moroccan Foreign Plan and Research Technique as much of the given process are related to doing research and writing accounts and summaries.
Concerning the nature of work in the ministry I would make a set of think tanks and Particular newspapers to be checked out daily, Preparing some daily work that can be done daily like looking for articles that talk about Morocco in newspapers. The personnel should have some workshops of latest innovations in computer and Information technology to keep them kept up to date of what's new in this area, therefore boosting their performance.
To improve my research and writing statement skills Comparison
The main points that I seen in assessing both my internship experience in the USA with the main one in Morocco is due to the extensive useful such jobs as translation while they are quite absent in USA. In both occasion I notice the importance of the mass media and looking at it on daily basis to consider article that mention Tammy Baldwin and those that mention morocco
Responding to telephone calls
Writing support words, organizing the archives, faxing paper articles and call linens, searching for grants or loans and bills
The constituent call sheet
Emails accounts
Clothes and formality
Conclusion
The internship was a golden chance to broaden my experience in diplomacy and morocco's foreign policy by witnessing how diplomacy is exercised in the ministry. I learned valuable information and gained a professional experience that is relevant and directly related to major.
