Mediterranean Security Revisited

Abstract

At the dawn of the last century, the European and Mediterranean countries failed to reach a consensus on building a cooperative security system. This article is an attempt at revisiting the concept of the Mediterranean security system and assessing the conditions for restarting security dialogue in the region. Upon recognition of the need for taking into account the new dimension of risks along with the traditional dimension of threats, the article reviews the insecurity factors of the Mediterranean region and the lesson learned in the security dialogue of the Barcelona Process. Some proposals about rehearsing that dialogue are advanced in the concluding section.

Keywords:

• Barcelona Process
• Regional Security Partnership
• Risk Analysis
• Security
• Threat

Notes

1. Beck Ulrich, World Risk Society (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999).

2. See, for instance, John Oneal and Jaroslav Tir, “Does the Diversionary Use of Force Threaten the Democratic Peace? Assessing the Effect of Economic Growth on Interstate Conflict, 1921–2001.” International Studies Quarterly 50: 755–780 (2006); Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Trading State. Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, 1986); and Gerald Schneider, Katherine Barbieri, and Nils Petter Gleditsch, eds., Globalization and Armed Conflict (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).

3. See, for instance, David Kinsella, “Rivalry, Reaction, and Weapons Proliferation: A Time-Series Analysis of Global Arms Transfers.” International Studies Quarterly 46: 209–230 (2002); Lewis Richardson, Arms and Insecurity. A Mathematical Study of the Causes and Origins of War (Pittsburgh: Quadrangle Books, 1960); and John A.Vasquez, “The Probability of War, 1816–1992.” International Studies Quarterly 48: 1–29 (2004).

4. See Environmental Statistics in the Mediterranean Countries: Compendium 2005 (Luxemburg Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2006).

5. See, for instance, Tarek Barkawi and Mark Laffey, eds., Democracy, Liberalism and War. Rethinking the Democratic Peace Debate (Boulder, Lynne Rienner, 2001); and Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

6. Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver, Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

7. See Melvin Singer and Aarson Wildavsky, The Real World Order. Zones of Peace/Zones of Turmoil (Chatham: Chatham House, 1993); and Arie M. Kacowicz, Zones of Peace in the Third World. South America and West Africa in Comparative Perspective (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998).

8. Kristian S. Gleditsch, All International Politics Is Local. The Diffusion of Conflict, Integration, and Democratization (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002).

9. Kathy Powers, “Regional Trade Agreements as Military Alliances.” International Interactions 30: 373–395 (2004).

10. Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, eds., Security Communities (Cambridge, Cambridge, University Press, 1998).

11. Emanuel Adler, Federica Bicchi, Beverly Crawford, and Raffaella Del Sarto, eds., The Convergence of Civilizations. Constructing a Mediterranean Region (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2006).

12. See Keith Krause, ed., Culture and Security. Multilateralism, Arms Control and Security Building (London: Frank Cass, 1999).

13. See Pinar Bilgin, Regional Security in the Middle East. A Critical Perspective (London: Routledege, 2005).

14. See Zeev Maoz, Emily Landau, Tamar Malz, eds., Building Regional Security in the Middle East: International, Regional and Domestic Influences (London: Frank Cass, 2004).

15. See Fulvio Attinà, “The Building of Regional Security Partnership and the Security-Culture Divide in the Mediterranean Region,” in Emanuel Adler, Federica Bicchi, Beverly Crawford, and Raffaella Del Sarto, eds., The Convergence of Civilizations. Constructing a Mediterranean Region (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2006) 87–109; Fulvio Attinà “The European Security Partnership: A Comparative Analysis,” in Managing Multi-Level Foreign Policy. The EU in International Affairs, Paolo Foradori, Paolo Rosa, and Riccardo Scartezzini, eds. (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2007), 87–109; and Fulvio Attinà and Guichang Zhu, “Security Culture and the Construction of Security Partnerships: The European Union and China Compared,” The Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights 5: 85–110 (2001).

16. Karl W. Deutsch et al., Political Community in the North Atlantic Area (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957).

17. Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, cit.

18. Fulvio Attinà, “The Building of Regional Security Partnership and the Security-Culture Divide in the Mediterranean Region,” cit.