The Euro-Med Partnership: Constructing a Region of Stability

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