The Barcelona Process

The Barcelona Process
Author: Alvaro Vasconcelos
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2000
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780714651095

This volume takes a critical look at the problems faced by the Barcelona Process and the likelihood of its success.

The Challenge of Differentiation in Euro-Mediterranean Relations

The Challenge of Differentiation in Euro-Mediterranean Relations
Author: Esther Barbé
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135761442

The tension between the aim of creating sustainable multilateral region-building dynamics and the need to find more differentiated and flexible forms of cooperation has been ever-present in Euro-Mediterranean relations. The proliferation of different and partially overlapping initiatives in recent years – the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean – is a plain expression of this tension. The 2011 episodes of regime-change in the Arab world have once again placed the debate about differentiation in EU’s relations with Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries at the top of the Union’s foreign policy agenda. This book contributes to theoretical and practical debates on whether differentiation processes can aid or hinder policy convergence processes and region-building efforts more widely. The contributions to this collection assess the actual significance and consequences of differentiation in Euro-Mediterranean relations through sector-specific in-depth analyses, covering issue areas as varied as environmental policy, migration, foreign and defence policy, trade, energy, civil protection and democracy promotion. The particular angle and comprehensive analysis of this book will make it of great interest for both scholars and policy makers alike in a moment when Euro-Mediterranean are in need of a thorough rethink. This book was based on a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

Negotiating the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

Negotiating the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
Author: Ricardo Gomez
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2018-01-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351777068

This title was first published in 2003. In this study Ricardo Gomez traces the origins of the external Mediterranean policy of the European Union (EU) and examines in detail the negotiations that shaped the policy and its impact. Combining historical analysis with case studies of the Euro-Med partnership initiative, EU policy on Algeria and the EU's involvement in the Middle East peace process, he covers a diverse array of issues that will appeal to scholars across a variety of sub-disciplines of political science and international relations.

The Convergence of Civilizations

The Convergence of Civilizations
Author: Emanuel Adler
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2006-12-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442657308

Recent efforts by the United States and its allies to promote democracy, security, and stability in the Middle East owe much to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) – also known as the Barcelona Process – an important region-building plan in the Mediterranean region since 1995. The Convergence of Civilizations represents the output of an innovative and much needed collaborative project focused on the EMP. Editors Emanuel Adler, Beverly Crawford, Federica Bicchi, and Rafaella A. Del Sarto have set out to show that regional security and stability may be achieved through a cultural approach based on the concept of regional identity construction, and aim to take stock of the EMP in relation to this goal. The contributors to this collection focus on the obstacles Mediterranean region construction faces due to post 9/11 regional and global events, the difficulties of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, tensions between the EU and the US over Iraq, and the expected consequences of EU enlargement. They also seek to bring the EMP and region-making practices to the attention of American scholars in order to promote a more fertile academic exchange. Ultimately, the contributors demonstrate that the EMP and related region-making practices, while failing so far to promote the development of a Mediterranean regional identity and to achieve regional stability, suggest nonetheless a viable model for regional partnership and cooperation, and thus, for preventing a 'clash of civilizations' in the long haul. The Convergence of Civilizations will be an important tool for meeting the current global challenges being faced by nation-states as well as those in the future.

EU Enlargement, Region Building and Shifting Borders of Inclusion and Exclusion

EU Enlargement, Region Building and Shifting Borders of Inclusion and Exclusion
Author: James Wesley Scott
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2016-04-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131714029X

The 2004 entry of 10 Central and Eastern European countries, along with Malta and Cyprus, into the EU has caused a huge shift in the EU's external boundaries. The socio-economic and political transformations that this shift has caused not only suggest new regional development opportunities, but also many potential problems and tensions. While the EU insists that enlargement will not signify 'new divisions', processes of inclusion and exclusion and the imposition of visa restrictions on non-EU citizens could pose obstacles to co-operation, conjuring fears of an emerging 'fortress Europe' that effectively divides the continent. Illustrated with case studies from Central and Eastern European border areas, this book examines capacities for region building across national borders in within the context of EU enlargement, synthesizing the various insights provided by local information and suggesting ways forward for the future development of the EU's 'Wider Europe' strategy.

The Penguin Companion to European Union

The Penguin Companion to European Union
Author: Anthony Teasdale
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Europe
ISBN: 9780141021188

The focus of this book is on the fifteen-member European Union but its coverage extends to many other bodies which form part of today's Europe, such as the Council of Europe, the European Economic Area and Western European Union.

The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean

The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean
Author: Michelle Pace
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317988612

Democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a central pillar of the foreign policy the European Union (EU). Rather than concentrating on the relations between the incumbent authoritarian regimes and the opposition in the relevant countries, and on the degree to which these relations are affected by EU efforts at promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law (an outside-in approach), this collection of articles inverts the focus of such relationships and attempts to look at them ‘inside-out’. While some contributions also emphasise the ‘outside-in’ axis, given that this continues to be analytically rewarding, the overarching thrust of this book is to provide some empirical substance for the claim that EU policy making is not unidirectional and is influenced by the perceptions and actions of its ‘targets’. Thus, the focus is on domestic political changes on the ground in the MENA and how they link into what the EU is attempting to achieve in the region. Finally, the self-representation of the EU and its (lack of a) clear regional role is discussed. This book was published as a special issue of Democratization.

The Economics of Regional Security

The Economics of Regional Security
Author: Jurgen Brauer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2013-03-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134960611

This important book explores the threats and challenges to regional security, for Nato, in the Mediterranean, and in the sub-Saharan countries, namely southern Africa. Written and edited by leading researchers, the volume's significance lies in its demonstration of how concepts from economics and other social science disciplines can be applied to important issues of defence, conflict and peace at the regional level.

The European Union in the Security of Europe

The European Union in the Security of Europe
Author: Steve Marsh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2012-03-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136631011

This book examines the European Union’s contribution to providing security in Europe amidst an increasingly complex and challenging environment. In this new and comprehensive guide to the EU's role in security since the end of the Cold War, the authors offer an explanation of EU internal and external security regimes, and argue that the Union has become an important exporter of security within its region. However, the Union’s rhetorical ambitions and commitments continue to outstrip its capabilities and it lacks both a common conceptualisation of security and a meaningful, shared strategic culture. Drawing extensively on primary sources the book examines the Union’s relations with the US and Russia in a time of shifting geostrategic calculations and priorities. With the EU capacity for enlargement slowing, this text presents a detailed assessment of EU security policies towards Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus. European Union Security will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, security studies, and international relations.

Borderlands

Borderlands
Author: Raffaella A. Del Sarto
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2021-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0192570110

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East proposes a profound rethink of the complex relationship between Europe-defined here as the European Union and its members-and the states of the Mediterranean Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe's 'southern neighbours'. These relations are examined through a borderlands prism that conceives of this interaction as of one between an empire of sorts, which seeks to export its order beyond the border, and the empire's southern borderlands. Focusing on trade relations on the one hand, and the cooperation on migration, borders, and security on the other, the book revisits the historical origins and modalities of Europe's selective rule transfer to MENA states, the interests underwriting these policies, and the complex dynamics marking the interaction between the two sides over a twenty-year period (1995-2015). It shows that within a system of structurally asymmetric economic relations from which Europe and MENA elites benefit the most, single MENA governments have been co-opted into the management of border and migration control where they act as Europe's gatekeepers. Combined with specific policy choices of MENA governments, Europe's selective expansion of its rules, practices, and disaggregated borders have in fact contributed to rising socio-economic inequalities and the strengthening of authoritarian rule in the 'southern neighbourhood', with Europe tacitly tolerating serious violations of the rights of refugees and migrants at its fringes. Challenging the self-proclaimed benevolent nature of European policies and the notion of 'Fortress Europe' alike, the findings of this study contribute to broader debates on power, dependence, and interdependence in the discipline of International Relations.