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Abstract
In the academic literature on EU–southern Mediterranean relations, a focal point of neglect has been the gendered dimension of Euro-Mediterranean relations. This article argues that the Euro-Mediterranean space has been formed within the gendered global West/non-West relations with the purpose of promoting the West's security interests. Euro-Mediterranean security relations, thus, embody a gendered power hierarchy between the hybrid hegemonic masculinity of the EU (bourgeois-rational and citizen-warrior) and the subordinate (both feminized and hypermasculinized) southern neighbourhood. In addition, it shows that following the Arab Spring the EU has been determined to maintain the status quo by reconstructing these gendered power relations. This gender analysis contributes to the literature on Euro-Mediterranean relations through its specific focus on the (re)construction processes of gendered identities within the West/non-West context in tandem with the EU's competing notions of security.
Acknowledgements
Parts of this article were presented at the 7th Pan-European Conference on the European Union, ECPR, 5–7 June 2014, The Hague. I would like to thank anonymous referees and the editor for their comments. My special thanks go to Athina Gkouti.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. This is different from ‘mimicry’, which is a survival strategy of the colonized by emulating the colonizer (see Bhabha, Citation2004; Ling, Citation2002: 116–117). In this analysis, emulation is encouraged by the EU to create a non-threatening non-western space.