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In this EuroMeSCo Paper, Erzsébet Rózsa argues that the new actors brought to light by the revolutions and the democratisation processes - the “people” and the Islamists - are redefining the geo-strategic landscape of the region. While the “people” struggle to organise into durable political structures, the Islamists lead today most of the new governments of the region, thus affecting their international agenda and relations with external powers such as the EU and the US.
The changing political landscape is also affecting the relations of the countries of the Arab Spring with other external powers. The paper by Rózsa reviews the role of Israel, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, among others, in this the new geo-strategic environment of the Arab world.
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The Secretariat of EuroMeSCo is pleased to announce that the next EuroMeSCo General Assembly and Annual Conference will take place in Paris on 3rd and 4th of October 2013. The event will be organised in partnership with the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). |
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EuroMeSCo will participate in the organisation of the Second Symposium on Security in the Mediterranean, to be held in Tunis on 2 and 3 May 2013 and organised by the Centre d’Études Méditerranéennes et Internationales (CEMI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence of Tunisia and the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The meeting will focus on four main areas: Deepening of the various dialogues on security in the Mediterranean, cooperation on security in the western basin of the Mediterranean, threats to security in the Mediterranean region and terrorism and counter-terrorism. Participation to this workshop is by invitation only.
See the programme here |
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Are the Arab transitions failing? Will the countries of the region be able to consolidate inclusive democratic systems? Is the European Union doing enough to support democratic reforms and civil society? What is the role that think-tanks can play in countries in transition? Can they provide transforming ideas and become an informed and independent voice in policy debates?
The objective of this workshop to be held in Cairo, Egypt on 3-4 June 2013, is to analyse the current phase of the democratic transitions in the region dominated by a high level of polarisation. It will be organised by EuroMeSCo, IEMed and the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
The workshop will be an opportunity to collectively engage with the main think-tanks and identify the critical choices that policy makers are facing, and to analyse the actors and the factors at play, with a particular focus on Egypt and its significance for the rest of democratic transitions in the Arab world.
The sessions on 3 June will be open to the public, while the ones on 4 June are by invitation only
See the programme of the workshop here: |
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After decades of relative stagnation, the Mediterranean basin is in flux. A plethora of trends and developments in the Middle East and North Africa has triggered or accelerated geopolitical shifts, which are likely to affect Europe’s relations with the region in the years to come.
The EU and its member states have gone to great lengths to tailor an adequate “response” to the 2011 uprisings. Yet, having failed to view the uprisings as part of a larger power shift, so far EU policy has not incorporated the strategic foresight that will be needed to anchor Europe’s position in future relations with the region. Similarly, reviewed EU policies do not offer insight on how to deal with countries that show little appetite for comprehensive institutional EU integration, which forms the backbone of EU policies in its neighbourhood.
Brussels’ policies towards the region are based on the implicit assumption that a continued dominant European position in relations with Southern Mediterranean partner countries can be taken for granted. This paper by Kristina Kausch aims to challenge this view and offers a valuable set of policy recommendations for the reformulation of EU policies towards the Southern Mediterranean.
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