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Explaining EU hegemony toward the Mediterranean: theory deficits through the negligence of natural resources In the mid 90s, as part of the globalization process, EU states started to intensify their efforts to create new opportunities for investment and trade in the Mediterranean region. To that effect they launched the so-called Barcelona process with its centerpiece of an Economic Free Trade Area between EU and Mediterranean Barcelona participants. According to neo-liberal theory the economic liberalization of the Mediterranean would be of mutual benefit to both parties involved: investment and free trade would foster the region’s economic development, would reduce poverty and generate stability. Particularly investment in the Maghreb countries would be very attractive for European business in view of the region’s availability of cheap labour, favorable investment conditions and access to new markets. Critics of globalization and neo-liberalism, however, in particular Neo-Gramscians, consider the EU Barcelona process as an instrument of the EU elite for incorporating the Mediterranean region in their hegemonic bloc, to the profit of the EU and Mediterranean elite and at the expense of the Mediterranean ordinary population. Now, eight years after the launching of this initiative, it seems that the critics of globalization got it right: the living conditions of the populations of most of the Maghreb countries have not improved, in some countries they even worsened. But a close look at the reasons for the worsening living conditions of some Maghreb countries suggests that the reality is more complex than the theory is capable to grasp. While there is no doubt that EU companies profit from the unilateral trade between both regions, and that deregulation and privatization programs have already had their devastating effects, investment in labor intensive sectors is not taking place and is not expected to start off any time soon. So far the biggest share of the otherwise little EU investment in the Maghreb is taken up by a sector which Neo-Gramscian have difficulties to explain: investment in Algerian and Egyptian energy sector with the prospect of significant expansion in future. But as a Marxist approach the neo-Gramscian one has little regard for the role of natural resources in the economic process and for the fact that in contrast to the abundant availability of cheap labor, we are confronted with the limits of some critical natural resources. Therefore, empirical research led by Neo-Marxist theory would miss important motives for the EU’s consolidation of a hegemonic bloc with the Mahgreb countries’ elites: EU governments’ concern about energy supply dependencies and European energy companies’ objective in accessing the region’s cheaply extracted natural resources. Recognition of such a different form of EU exploitation of the Maghreb countries’ wealth would be imperative for a successful political strategy to improve the conditions in these poverty-stricken countries. While a Neo-Marxist approach in principle is well suited to explain the dynamics of the Euro-Mediterranean process, this paper will argue that important undercurrents of this partnership are left unexplained by the Neo-Gramscian theory, if it does not shed its orthodox Marxist tenet of ignoring nature and the constrains set by the limits of nature. The paper will start to discuss the general negligence of nature in IR theory in the age of globalization and will discuss - as Daniel Deudney has put it - how to bring nature back in. The empirical part is going to highlight the importance of the role of energy in Euro-Mediterranean relations and in particular the energy import dependencies of the European Union from Maghreb countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) creates a significant security impact at the global level, through the projection of its own model (as a regional integration process) to the whole world. The Mediterranean can be regarded as the major area where the EU tries to project its own model. The Mediterranean is a significant region as it epitomizes the world with all its vulnerabilities in the face of global security challenges. It is the meeting point of various religions and the stage of intractable conflicts, socio-economic, and political grievances. Illegal immigration, illicit arms and drug trafficking as well as international terrorism are some of the challenges that face the Mediterranean. The EU has two different policy frameworks to deal with the Mediterranean: the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Whereas the EMP represents a region-building approach, the newly designed ENP opts for a bilateral one which signals a differentiated relationship between the EU and its neighbours. This paper aims at analysing the EU's security actorness in the Mediterranean. It has two major arguments: The first one is that the EU creates a significant security impact at the global level by projecting its own model to other regions and this can be observed in the case of the Mediterranean. The second one is that when compared to the ENP, the EMP is better suited for supporting peace and stability in the Mediterranean due to its region-building approach. In the paper, the EU’s global security actorness is analysed first. Secondly, the geopolitical significance of the Mediterranean which epitomises global challenges is scrutinised. Thirdly, the EMP and the ENP are analysed comparatively, in order to reflect on their relative advantages and weaknesses in dealing with the Mediterranean. The concluding section proposes ways to enhance the EU’s global security actorness in general and the EMP in particular. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we try to provide a first assessment on the extent of financial integrationand convergence between selected European and Southern Mediterranean countriesinvolved in the Barcelona process. In particular, we implement a simple test of capitalmobility based on the verification of the international real interest parity hypothesisbetween domestic rates against the real rate of Germany, used as the Europeanreference country, and against the real rate of the US. We repeat the test before andafter the introduction of the Euro, and then measure the speed of real interest rateconvergence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), operating nowadays under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), is one of the major policies which organises the relation between the EU and its bordering countries. The economic chapter of this partnership, which aims to create a free trade area in the Euro-Mediterranean region by 2010, has generated an interesting debate in relation to the nature and implementation of various economic reforms that ought to be pursued by Mediterranean partners. One position in this debate links the neo liberal nature of these reforms to the slow progress of implementation due to the anticipated high social cost associated with these policies (Mahjoub 2001 and Zaafaraneh 2002).Another position, however, questions this ‘neo liberal’ branding of these policies and insists on the essentiality of the social component which characterises their design (EU, Philippart 2003). This clearly reflects an ongoing debate in International Political economy (IPE) literature which asses the extent to which the Post Washington Consensus is fundamentally different from its predecessor in relation to social policy. This article seeks to further explore this debate by shifting the level of analysis from policy description to policy prescription. In so doing, it argues that the economic welfarism approach embedded in the EU policy seriously weakens its claims of attributing a considerable importance for social policy in its policy design ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new model for relations between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbours. It argues that, against the background of the growing challenges of the European Neighbourhood Space, there is a need to think about a new model for relations between the Mediterranean Neighbourhood Partner States and the EU. The model should enable a significant upgrade of the political and security relations, as well as those in the economic, research, cultural and social/human fields. The paper departs from the assumption that the time has come to implement the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) principles and ideas and to accelerate the discussions on the development of a new strategic model. Drawing on the ENP experience, the paper proposes the creation of what it calls the ‘Privileged Union’ Model. The paper will present and discuss this new model, and will further present common tools needed to confront political, social and security challenges in the European Neighbourhood Space. The paper will also present the various programmes and agencies that could be open to all Mediterranean ‘Privileged Union’ Member States. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent blurring of internal and external security has led to the emergence of an external dimension to the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) policy which signals a new phase for the development of the European Union (EU)’s internal security governance. The achievement of internal objectives being dependant on the cooperation with third countries, the foreign policy ambitions of JHA are now well established. Through two case studies, this paper will look into the ways in which JHA influences traditional European foreign policy domains such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The first one will show how JHA has become predominant in EU’s foreign policy towards the EU’s Mediterranean neighbourhood. Through issues such as border management and terrorism cooperation new patterns of security cooperation will be identified with Morocco and Egypt. The second case study will demonstrate that ESDP operations are also increasingly influenced by internal security objectives. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the EUPM police and EUFOR military missions reflects the interaction between ESDP and JHA in the fight against organized crime.This paper sheds a new light on the conceptual debates on the future of European foreign and security policies. Those two intergovernmental fields are very much intertwined and it is time for researchers and policy-makers to re-conceptualize the links between internal and external security. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the paper is to look at the process of regionalisation in the Mediterranean area through the framework of the New Regionalism Approach (NRA). Meta-theoretically the conceptualisation is reflectivist and theoretical approach to IR is social constructivism. Author offers an upgrade of NRA, initiated by Hettne and Söderbaum, and applys it to the Mediterranean area. After a time-space sensitive analysis of the regionalisation process in the area, author turns more attention to the recent (i.e. post Cold War) perspective of this process and offers understanding an explanation of the state of the Mediterranean regionness as it has been developing since then. This analysis considers different regionalising actors: a) governmental (state) and non-governmental actors, but also historically rooted and rather region-specific ones, b) domestic and external actors of which one of the latter (the EU is in focus). The main argument of the paper is that due to (historical) European Community/Union (and other external state actors) meddling in the area with their own regionalism projects, domestic state actors can not raise the Mediterranean regionness to a higher level (sustain their proper ideas and practices of regionalisation/regionalism). Hence, non-governmental actors (Mediterranean civil society) are becoming important actors in raising the Mediterranean regionness, co-operating with global and regional governmental and non-governmental actors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on marginal interactions between Europe and its southern periphery: the settings for EU-Mediterranean relations are the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP or Barcelona Process) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). In telling the story of Europe's self-assertion vis-a-vis its southern neighbours, possibilities for the margins are uncovered. The paper also explores how the dysfunctional interplay between Europe and its southern margins can be handled. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mediterranean is significant as it represents a dividing line between the North and the South. Democratic, liberal, wealthy (European) states are located on its northern shores whereas its southern shores are torn by conflicts, lack of democracy (autocratic regimes), economic and social deprivation etc. Especially after September 11, the significance of the Mediterranean has increased as it is the meeting point of three religions, and the stage for at least three intractable conflicts and economic, social and political grievances. The Mediterranean represents an important challenge for the European Union (EU) in this regard, as it constitutes the EU's immediate neighbourhood. Illegal immigration from and through the Mediterranean, and the region's location as a favourite route for illicit arms and drug trafficking increase its significance -- especially because these are crucial components of terrorism. Furthermore, there are significant number of people (as residents or citizens) in the EU who have origins in the Mediterranean or the Middle East. All the said factors led the EU to deal with the Mediterranean through the use of various foreign policy tools. These tools are used in such a way to promote democratization and respect for human rights while providing aid and trade benefits in order to ease socio-economic grievances in the region. The most significant element of EU policy on the Mediterranean is the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership that it established in 1995 (the Barcelona Process), which is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year. The Union's New Neighbourhood Policy is also another tool for dealing with the Mediterranean as well. This paper aims at analysing the security impact of the EU (especially as a civilian power) that it creates in the Mediterranean through the use of its different policy tools (from development aid to diplomatic initiatives) and reflecting on its implications for the North-South divide. The paper will be organised in such a way to discuss the Mediterranean's significance as a dividing line between the North and the South (and the security challenges that this location brings), first. Then, EU's foreign policy tools and its nature as a civilian power will be put briefly in order to lay the basis for an analysis of its Mediterranean Policy. Finally, EU's Mediterranean Policy and its security impact will be discussed in such a way to reflect on its implications for the North-South divide. The main argument of this paper is that EU policy on the Mediterranean is actually a means of (or an attempt at) abating the North-South divide, although it needs to be enhanced in several ways. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinizes EU external governance in Mediterranean countries as a novel form of association. Starting from the institutional set up of the ENP, it scrutinises how far ENP cooperation with the Mediterranean departs from earlier cooperation under the Barcelona process and constitutes a deeper level of association. In order to analyse this, the paper takes a comparative perspective and analyses how far the institutional set up and the substance of cooperation with two Mediterranean countries, Morocco and Tunisia, is comparable to that with the Eastern neighbours under the ENP (esp. Ukraine and Moldova), or even the model of the European Economic Area which has officially inspired the ENP. Shifting from an institutional comparison of these different forms of association at the macro level to their micro-foundations within individual policy areas, it analyses the emergence and functioning of external governance in the following policy areas: justice and home affairs, energy, environment, transport, and research and development. The comparative framework shall allow to investigate not only the dynamics behind EU-neighbourhood relations, but also to look more closely at the tension between European influence as "normative power" and interest-led foreign policy. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the debate about how best to theorise about European foreign policy. It aims at analysing the extent to which the EU?s international stance is the outcome of institutional reflexivity in the EU. Reflexivity, in the sense introduced by Giddens, suggests the capacity to critically re-analyse social activity in the light of new knowledge. The paper will thus examine to what extent is the EU defining the principles on which it bases its foreign policy in such a critical manner. It will be argued that while there are elements of the EU?s international relations that point in that direction, there is also a substantial part of it which derives from unreflexive behaviour. The paper will then link unreflexivity to the broader debates in International Relations about institutionalism and will show that sociological institutionalism is thus particularly well placed to explain this type of behaviour. Examples from the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership will be brought in to demonstrate how unreflexive behaviour occurs. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stability and security in Europe are fundamentally linked to the stability and security of the Mediterranean area. At first sight, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue appear to be complementary and to represent two sides of the same coin: the European Union is able to offer ? through its EMP ? the economic co-operation that is vitally important for the region, while at the same time promoting political dialogue and collaboration on ?soft security? issues, whereas NATO can privilege ?hard security? aspects, given on the one hand its nature as a military alliance, and on the other the presence among its members of the United States and Turkey, two countries that play a fundamental role in the security of the Mediterranean.However, this theoretical complementarity does not translate into explicit political practice: the Dialogue and the Partnership have until now travelled along parallel yet separate rails, failing to seek potentially beneficial synergies.This paper conducts a parallel analysis of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue, with the objective of identifying the problems of coordination existing between the two initiatives and of exploring possible mechanism of future harmonisation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euro-Mediterranean relations constitute a sui generis example of regional integration. With the end of the cold war, growing immigratin flows from North Africa towards Europe, the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and international tensions resulting from the war in Iraq and the "war on terror," the Middle East and North Africa have become a crucial area of interest in the external relations of the EU. The EU has developed a wide variety of political and economic mechanisms designed to promote stabiity and cooperation. Although the discourse of the EU officially rejects the paradigm of the "clash of civilizations" between the West and Islam, Europe continues to struggle to find a way to accomodate muslims in Europe as well as in the Islamic countries. This paper discusses how the issue of Islam, considered as both a religion and a culture, is dealt with in Euro-Mediterranean relations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional rules and mandates shaping global health today have been directly inherited from institutions created to address a small set of infectious diseases in the Mediterranean at the turn of the 20th century. I examine how this narrow legacy h ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New approaches to network analysis and dynamical modeling are used to focus on interactive processes entailed in the growth and decline of cities and polities in relation to networks of trade and conflict. The project brings together world-systems and network analysts with historians, and social scientists concerned with the evolution of macrostructural networks to explore the synergies than can result from the exchange and integration of datasets, temporal GIS and network visualization, the sharing of modeling and analytical tools across disciplines, and exchanges as to intellectual frameworks and problems. Sample results are shown from Europe and the Mediterranean. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]