The Arab Spring and the Mediterranean Basin: A Case Study of Jordan (original) (raw)
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The series of political and economic crises that befell many countries in the Mediterranean region starting in 2009 has raised emphatically questions of reform and transition. While the sovereign debt crisis of Southern European states and the "Arab Spring" appear prima facie unrelated, some common roots can be identified: low levels of social capital and trust, high incidence of corruption, and poor institutional performance. This series provides a venue for the comparative study of reform and transition in the Mediterranean within and across the political, cultural, and religious boundaries that crisscross the region. Defining the Mediterranean as the region that encompasses the countries of Southern Europe, the Levant, and North Africa, the series contributes to a better understanding of the agents and the structures that have brought reform and transition to the forefront. It invites (but is not limited to) interdisciplinary approaches that draw on political science, history, sociology, economics, anthropology, area studies, and cultural studies. Bringing together case studies of individual countries with broader comparative analyses, the series provides a home for timely and cutting-edge scholarship that addresses the structural requirements of reform and transition; the interrelations between politics, history and culture; and the strategic importance of the Mediterranean for the EU, the USA, Russia, and emerging powers.
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.
Mediterranean Politics The Arab Uprisings in Theoretical Perspective – An Introduction
The so-called 'Arab Awakening' is a momentous event that surprised both scholars and policy makers. For over a decade the paradigm of authoritarian resilience had dominated studies of the Arab world, almost entirely replacing the democratization paradigm that had been prominent throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This inter-paradigm debate on how best to explain and interpret the politics of the Arab world now calls for a review, in light of the Arab uprisings. The contributions to this themed issue offer a first attempt at highlighting some of the theoretical issues that should inform our rethinking of this debate thus far. Overall the issue thus aims at making a theoretical contribution by providing a deeper insight into the socio-economic -political structures and the new actors that led to the uprisings in the Arab world. It also explores and considers the opportunities and constraints that these structures offer for sharpening our theoretical tools -which may in turn lead us to use the paradigms and models available to us more flexibly. The case studies that this themed issue deals with by no means exhaust all the issues and case studies that need to be re-thought since the Arab uprisings of December 2010 to date. The aim is to provide useful insights for others to apply more broadly across the whole region.
Critical Perspectives on Euro-Mediterranean Relations after the "Arab Spring"
Marmara University Journal of Political Science, 2018
The essay points out that the transformations caused by the uprisings of the "Arab Spring" imply the necessity of rethinking the history of the Euro-Mediterranean relations-since the Treaty of Rome (1957) until the Review of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2015-and of reconsidering their future perspectives. In these relations the cultural legacy of colonialism is still very strong through the influence that the western powers have continued to exercise towards the postcolonial States both in Africa and the southern shore of Mediterranean. In particular the study outlines the colonial concerns that played central role in the establishment of the EEC in 1957 through the association agreements with the postcolonial States in the frame of the project called "Eurafrica". The overcoming of the colonial heritage ought to radically change the European protectionist policies and the conditionality clause towards the countries of the southern shore of Mediterranean in order to realise a condition of interdependence and a real partnership of equals in the common space of Mediterranean. In this perspective, a different migration policy which considers the migrant as a transnational actor able to contribute to the development of both his country of origin and of the receiving one is also necessary.
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Political events following the 2011 uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have contributed to a new conceptualisation (and management) of border issues. The tumultuous period had a dramatic effects on Europe and the southern Mediterranean countries. On the one hand, Europe is facing a continuous redefinition of its borders, especially in the southern neighbourhood but also in the eastern part of the continent. On the other hand, the MENA countries are part of a game in which the political elites deploy sectarian identity, narratives and symbols to neutralise dissent and (re-)assert control, even on borders, spaces and places. Notwithstanding the counterrevolutionary trend, the presence of ongoing civil conflicts, along with the escalation of regional competition over the past decade, has notably changed the political and social landscape in many countries. In this context, the Euro-Mediterranean space seems more and more unstable, and its margins porous. It has become...
Arab Spring: The Role of the Peripheries. MEDITERRANEAN POLITICS
The emerging literature on the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ has largely focused on the evolution of the uprisings in cities and power centres. In order to reach a more diversified and inner understanding of the ‘Arab Spring’, this special issue examines how peripheries have reacted and contributed to the historical dynamics at work in the Middle East and North Africa. It rejects the idea that the ‘Arab Spring’ is a unitary process and shows that it consists of diverse Springs which differed in terms of opportunity structure, strategies of a variance of actors, and outcomes. This volume looks at geographical, religious, gender and ethnical peripheries, conceptualizing periphery as a dynamic structure which can expand and contract. It shows that the seeds for changing the face of politics and polities are within peripheries themselves. Focusing on the voices of peripheries can therefore be a powerful tool to ‘de-simplify’ the reading of the Arab Spring and to reshape the paradigmatic schemes through which to look at this part of the world. Key words: Peripheries, Arab Spring, Transition, Bottom-Up Empowerment