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The Euro-Med Partnership: Constructing a Region of Stability
Beverly Crawford of IES, Project Leader
The project begins with the assertion that the Mediterranean is
the world's most volatile region--where the cultural cleavages between
the West and Islam and the economic gap between North and South
collide. From this collision between the "Clash of Civilizations"
and extreme economic inequality have emerged the central threats
of the post-Cold War era: religious fundamentalism, nuclear proliferation,
international terrorism, migration, drug trade, and interstate military
conflict.
The Euro-Med process began in November 1995 with the Barcelona Declaration
or Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) Initiative. Backed by the
largest EU financial commitment ever made outside the Union, the
Declaration launched a set of economic, political, cultural, and
social initiatives, intended to reinforce one another in an open-ended
process of regional integration in the Mediterranean. The stated
purpose of this process was to extend southward the European area
of stability by creating more interdependence between the EU and
non-EU Mediterranean countries. The central question guiding the
research of this group is whether the construction of a transregional
relationship between the EU and the other countries that cluster
around the Mediterranean Sea can bridge the gaps between the West
and Islam and the North and the South in this area. The project
has three short-term goals. First it will document the process of
social engineering of the Mediterranean "region." Second, the project
will interpret the interactions launched by Barcelona Declaration
and assess both the opportunities and constraints facing the regional
community-building process. Third, the project will offer policy
prescriptions for regional stability. The project's long-term goal
is the institutionalization of a long-standing seminar, modeled
after similar seminars that met for several decades between the
superpowers on nuclear arms control. This seminar, which would include
a mixture of academic experts from a variety of disciplines as well
as national, international, and transnational political actors from
around the Mediterranean, will meet regularly to discuss issues
and problems concerning the EMP. It will also serve as a bridge
between academicians and politicians to help build bridges between
civil societies, a process intended to help build the substantive
infrastructure for regional cooperation.
In November 1999, project participants held the first planning meeting
at Berkeley. In the Spring of 2002, they will hold a major international
conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Participants will present papers,
to be published in the Institute's Working Paper Series, and plan
for future stages of the project.
Sample Paper from the Series:
Can Security Be
Enhanced Through the Construction of a Mediterranian Region? by
Emanuel Adler and Beverly Crawford |
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