For a remote strip of Saharan desert along the Atlantic seaboard, the Western Sahara has begun to attract a lot of attention. The European Union, the USA, the UN and Morocco have all declared an interest in this former Spanish colony, not to mention the indigenous Sahraoui people, who have fought for self-determination for over quarter of a century. Toby Shelley has talked to Moroccan, Western Saharan Polisario and other diplomats, as well as contacts in the oil industry. He has visited the territory and had access to both the Moroccan administration and the underground opposition. What emerges is that there is now a real prospect of a definitive resolution to this long-running, often bloody, conflict between Morocco and the Sahraoui people.