The Mediterranean is both Europe’s mirror and its extension, too close to ignore, too far to embrace. It is the cradle of its ‘civilisation’ and its demographic future, but also its poor southern neighbour and the source of its discontents. It is One with it and yet the Other — Arab, Muslim — at its doorstep. The Mediterranean is a space of intertwined histories and presents, a space of intense mingling and conflict. For some, it is a beautiful idea, for others a horrible headache. In the political or institutional realm, there is almost no evidence of it. From its beginning, the European Union has tried to define the nature of its relations with this space of imprecise contours, formerly the chosen territory of colonial expansion for its more powerful members. A decade ago, freed from the constraints of the Cold War, it gave birth to a new idea, the ‘Euro-Mediterranean Partnership’ (EMP). Fearing the winds of globalisation and feeling the pull of EU attraction, states of the southern Mediterranean, even while belonging to other geopolitical groups such as the Maghreb, the Machrek, the Middle-East and, of course, the ‘Arab world’, allowed themselves to be seduced by the idea.
Keywords
- Civil Society
- Normative Power
- Mutual Recognition
- Arab World
- Community Building
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.