CIAO DATE: 09/2011
August 2011
Danish Institute for International Studies
In this working paper by Pinar Bilgin, Eduard Soler i Lecha and Ali Bilgic the authors analyze the implications of European security practices vis-à-vis the Mediterranean in value terms as deduced from an analysis of 'facts on the ground' and local actors' perspectives (based on interviews conducted in Algeria, Egypt and Morocco). They argue that European security practices have had adverse implications for various security referents in the South. While it is too soon to tell whether the so-called 'Arab Spring' has been delayed or brought on by such collaboration, their research shows how Euro-Mediterranean security collaboration has rendered the already vulnerable individuals and societies of the South more defenceless and how southern Mediterranean states/regimes and societies have become further alienated from each other following such collaboration. The paper also highlights how the very practices adopted by European actors to secure the Union and its values may have rendered it less secure in light of their consequences for the very meaning of what it means to be 'European.'
Resource link: European Security Practices vis-à-vis the Mediterranean: Implications in Value Terms [PDF] - 418K