Pressing the Reset Button in Euro-Mediterranean Security Relations? (original) (raw)
Journal of Security Strategies, 2019
The literature on traditional and critical security studies mostly point out at a paradigm shift concerning the nature of security threats and challenges either caused or impacted upon by state, non-state, and transnational actors. From a security perspective, the European Union (EU) has been one of the most influential actors in its southern neighborhood covering the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA) regions particularly due to its active foreign policy influence mechanisms including European Strategy, European Neighborhood Policy, and most recently through its Global Strategy. Nonetheless, the EU foreign policies in the MENA region after the Arab uprisings have not been very successful in terms of promoting social, political, and economic stability and cooperation; and thus, it achieved mixed results instead of integrated outcomes. This paper addresses the difficulties and expectation-capability gaps in the EU’s foreign policies in the Middle East with a particular emphasis on the changing security structure and threats in the post-Arab Spring period. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the effectiveness of the Union’s regional strategies through the evaluation of its policies on volatile regions such as the Middle East.
A critical analysis of the EU’s response to the Arab Spring and its implications for EU security
Human Security Perspectives Journal, No. 1, pp. 26-61, 2014
This paper aims at critically analyzing the European Union (EU)’s response to the so-called Arab Spring, focusing on the security dimension. The tumultuous events that have been taken place in the Southern Mediterranean since late 2010 were perceived in the EU as a serious security challenge to its foreign and neighbourhood policies. Recognizing the shortcomings of both the European Neighbouring Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean in contributing to peace and security in the region, the EU has adopted several measures – including a review of the European Neighbourhood Policy – acknowledging the need to offer more benefits to the EU’s southern neighbours, and support the processes of political, economic and social transformation in the region. However, the EU’s response to the events is often portrait in a seemingly erratic fashion, suggesting that the Union has to adopt a more coherent and pragmatic approach towards the region in order to assure peace and stability at its borders: the ultimate goal of its foreign and neighbourhood policies. In order to tackle these issues the paper uses a critical constructivist framework of analysis, focusing on discourses and practices, that enables a broader mapping and understanding of the EU’s response to the Arab Spring. To do so, the paper starts by presenting the critical constructivist approach that frames the research. Secondly, it provides an overview of the EU’s frameworks for relations with countries in the region prior to the Arab Spring. Thirdly, it explores the (perceived) impact of these events on EU security and critically analyses the EU’s overall response to the events and its contribution to assure peace and stability at its borders. The paper finishes with some conclusions regarding the discussed topic.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, the challenges that are emerging from a "changing neighborhood" have opened a new policy window for the EU and called for a policy reassessment regarding the Southern side of the Mediterranean. The Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity and the "more for more" logic tried to accomplish this by contributing to the definition of a new framework in EU-Mediterranean relations that could go beyond the inconsistencies of the past. At this stage, a fundamental question has emerged: to what extent has the EU undertaken a real "paradigmatic policy change"? The aim of this paper is to answer this question by investigating, through the lens of the policy cycle, the much-praised renewal of the EU approach in light of the Arab uprisings. Assuming that processes matter in shaping outcomes, the policy cycle is adopted to investigate the "black box" of the EU approach in all its phases-from agenda setting to implementation-in order to understand to what extent the new "item" on the EU agenda called for a real policy reassessment. Thus, the paper is divided into two parts. The first one, which considers the Arab uprisings as a watershed in the EU approach, presents a comparative analysis of all the policy phases before and after the events, assessing the elements of continuity and discontinuity with the past. Drawing on these results, the second part proposes suggestions to overcome the policy "incrementalism" that seems to emerge as a constant feature of the EU approach in the area. The Mediterranean entered the EU agenda regularly when specific strategic interests and the fear of new challenges with their related uncertainty made it a priority. The visibility of the problem is, indeed, of high importance for a new policy window to be opened. In the post cold war international context of the early 1990s, the low democratic and economic performance of the Mediterranean countries could no longer be neglected and the need to deal with security concerns, such as migration and Islamic terrorism, directed the EU's attention towards the area (Bicchi, 2007). The EMP emerged from these trends and, with its three baskets committed to promote peace, stability and prosperity, mentioned democracy promotion for the first time with the explicit assent of the Mediterranean nonmembers (Bicchi, 2009). In the early 2000s, the need to "eradicate the root causes of terrorism" (Tocci and Cassarino, 2011), exacerbated by 9/11 events and the EU's enlargement which created new borders and new, close neighbors, made the Mediterranean a high issue on EU agenda again. This time, the priority "not to import instability" (Solana, 2003) became the main policy paradigm eventually reflected in the bilateral and pragmatic approach of the ENP (Panebianco 2008; 2010). Security, stability and strategic concerns, therefore, were the main yardsticks that influenced how the EU perceived and "framed" the "Mediterranean issue". Certainly, the way a policy problem is defined is essential as it reveals the actors' perceptions and their different competing paradigms necessary when framing the issue. The aforementioned dilemma, stability vs. democracy, embodies this competition of different paradigms. The definition of the problem, anyway, is unstable. It can change during the process according to changing standards and perceptions (Dente, 2011). Similarly, if, during the 1990s, the "democracy promotion paradigm" was considered suitable to address the Mediterranean in a manner consistent with the EU normative concerns, the turn of the new century also marked a "stability turn" in the name of the status quo rather than of a change that could be uncertain. The UfM, with its "depoliticizing" (Bicchi, 2011) focus on low politics issues, further contributed to this reframing. All these considerations are clearly evident in the EU decisional processes. Consistent with the idea of the policy cycle as a continuum (Barrett and Fudge 1981), the strategic inputs of the agenda inevitably flow in the decision-making, eventually determining the policy content and outputs. Despite their rhetoric, the EU policy initiatives in the Mediterranean were deeply influenced by Member States' interests gradually trumping any normative goal sponsored by the Communitarian institutions. After all, in the EU "weakly institutionalized supranational decision-making structure" (Forster and Wallace, 1996), any normative discourse supported by Communitarian institutions is constrained by the intergovernmental channels of action prescribed by the Treaties. If the Commission is in charge of the implementation, Member States in the European and ministerial composition of the Council are responsible, respectively, in the provision of guidelines and the endorsement of final policy choices. Consistent with this decision-making structure, the reframing of the "Mediterranean" in terms of stability and strategic concerns shaped the content of the EU initiatives in the region. While the European Council (2004) endorsed the European Security Strategy as a "key framework for policy formulation", the Council of the EU (2007) stressed the EU's clear strategic imperative to foster stability through values merely defined as "rule of law and human rights". Stability, therefore, became the EU policy rationale that affected the policy content in terms of prudent changes, which resulted in small adjustments to the status quo (Lindblom 1959; 1979). Indeed, from the EMP to the ENP to the UfM, the substance remained the same. The new policy frameworks, the shift from regionalism to bilateralism and the principles of differentiation Politics finds its sources not only in power but also in uncertainty (Heclo, 1974 quoted in Dente 2011:12). This means that uncertainty entails a fundamental paradox. While it can push for a safer path in name of stability, it can also open a new policy window, paving the way for change. The Arab Spring and the uncertainty of its outcomes, indeed, opened a new policy window for the EU, representing an important opportunity to rethink its MENA policies. Analytically speaking, we could say that the Arab Spring is what Dente (2011) calls the "right moment". The time when actors' goals and perceptions are changed by an external event and there is the need to deal with problems that are "urgent and not to be postponed" (ibid). Similarly, the Arab uprisings now call for a paradigm shift and the need "to do something for the Mediterranean" (Bicchi, 2007). When, in October 2010, Commissioner Füle and High Representative Ashton wondered what ENP vision within a 10-15 year horizon could be, they were far from knowing that the Arab awakening was a "latent time bomb" (Dery, 1997) and that change was at the doorstep. Indeed, the Arab awakening changed that horizon quickly and paved the way for a new policy-making, which was different from merely "muddling through". After all, as suggested by Lustick (1980), the utility of incrementalism is highly reduced when there are thresholds or discontinuities. The Arab Spring is an important discontinuity, an exogenous event that should call for a revision of the status quo, overcoming incrementalism. Is the EU actually seizing "the moment"? A policy cycle analysis of the EU initiatives in the light of the Arab uprisings can address this question. Looking Inside the Black Box after the Arab Spring Despite their visibility, the Arab uprisings entered the EU agenda in a gradual and timid manner. The statement of the High Representative (2011) on the situation in Tunisia, which was released in early January 2010, only a few weeks after Sidi Bouzid revolts, is the first official reaction manifesting concern for the events. While this is a mere condemnation of violence, it was after Ben Ali's departure that the EU recognized "the point of no-return" by affirming the will to "stand side by side with Tunisians" and to support the endeavors to achieve their democratic aspirations 8. The same wait-and-see approach was applied in the case of Egypt. When it became clear that the protests in Tahrir Square were more than an isolated incident, the EU expressed its support to the "legitimate aspirations of the people of Egypt" and called on authorities to proceed with a free and fair election 9. Mubarak's resignation further displayed this cautious mix of spectatorship and actorness (Schumacher, 2011). The crucial presidential decision was merely "welcomed" in a soft-worded statement where the only probable solution for the EU was to remain at the ready "with all its instruments" 10. The events in Libya and Syria entered the EU agenda more rapidly in the wake of the violent repression turning into a civil war. In particular, following Holwett and Ramesh (2003), the Libyan case's entry in the European agenda was marked by both an inside initiation, with French president Sarkozy emerging as a soloist voice in the European chorus and asking for the adoption of sanctions, and an outside initiation in line with the adoption of specific UN Resolutions. However, apart from these cases whose critical consequences could not be neglected, the EU remained a detached observer in other countries, such as Yemen, Algeria or Bahrain, were the protests were silenced. In a similar fashion, the temperate situation in Jordan and Morocco received minor attention, mainly tailored to the top-down processes of reform. Besides these issues, security and migration were other items high on the agenda, displaying the strong link between the European systemic agenda and the domestic ones of its Member States. These multiple issues and the Arab crisis, which was more than a mere one-off event, provided the opportunity for a new approach. Following De Vries (2004), a crisis can be framed as an opportunity or as a threat, as an isolated incident or as a symptom of underlying forces that can open or close a window for reform. After some hesitation, the EU framed the new...
EUROPEAN UNION and THE MEDITERRANEAN: BEFORE and AFTER THE ARAB SPRING
The Mediterranean region is always important for the European Union (EU) as historically and geographically. In 1972, the relationship between EU and the Mediterranean region began to shape under the Global Mediterranean Policy, in 1995 Barcelona Process and in 2007 the Union for the Mediterranean Process. In December 2010, the civil commotion started in Tunisia then spread to the Gulf region. In this context, this study will analyze EU's Mediterranean policy before and after the Arab Spring in two chapters. In the first chapter, how European policies take action toward the Arab World also to the Mediterranean Region and second chapter tries to analyze how Arab Spring has an effect on Mediterranean politics which EU tries to shape and develop since 1972.
The EU Response to the Arab Uprising: Old Wine in New Bottles?
in Riccardo Alcaro and Miguel Haubrich-Seco (eds.), Re-thinking Western Policies in Light of the Arab Uprisings (IAI Research Papers 4), Rome, Nuova Cultura, February 2012, p. 71-96, ISBN 978-88-6134-778-6, 2012
This chapter looks at the changing configuration of the European Union’s southern neighbourhood. How has the European Union responded to the momentous developments unfolding along its southern borders and how should it respond so as to tailor its policies towards supporting a sustainable southern Mediterranean? The first section illustrates the situation of apparent stability, but overall unsustainability, that has led to the Arab revolts. The second section sheds light on the European Union’s approach towards this region prior to the popular revolts and on its partial responsibility for the situation of unsustainability in the region. Finally, the third part discusses the process of revision of the European Union’s policies towards the Mediterranean, and in particular the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), by highlighting its achievements and its limits.