Most Powerful

• #1 Hassan II of Morocco
  MoroccoNorth AfricaWestern Sahara Imperial SovereigntyPolitical Cold War and Globalization State Power Power: 100
  Hassan II of Morocco (1929–1999) ruled Morocco from 1961 until his death and became one of the most durable monarchs of the late twentieth-century Arab world. He belongs in imperial sovereignty because his power did not rest chiefly on personal business enterprise but on the crown’s ability to turn dynastic legitimacy, security control, religious symbolism, and administrative patronage into a lasting political order. Educated in both Moroccan and French environments and already active in state affairs before ascending the throne, Hassan inherited a postcolonial kingdom full of ideological rivalry, social inequality, regional tensions, and military uncertainty. He responded by building a system that mixed formal constitutional life with hard coercive capacity. Elections were permitted, parties survived, and reform language was often used, yet the palace remained the decisive center of command. Hassan’s rule was marked by crackdowns later remembered as part of the Years of Lead, by attempted coups that hardened his distrust, and by the Green March of 1975, which fused nationalism with monarchical authority around Western Sahara. He also cultivated Morocco’s image abroad as a mediator and reliable diplomatic actor. His legacy is therefore double-edged. He stabilized the monarchy and preserved the state through decades of upheaval, but he did so through a political architecture in which dissent was costly, institutional autonomy was narrow, and royal power remained the final sovereign fact.