“Mediterranean Challenges to the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union”

Stavridis, Stelios and Hutchence, Justin. (1999) “Mediterranean Challenges to the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union” . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1999 (6th), June 2-5, 1999, pages 18, Pittsburgh, PA.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to test the efficiency (or otherwise) of the EU’s foreign policy by concentrating on the CFSP and the Mediterranean (and more particularly on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership i.e., EMP or “Barcelona Process”). The main objective is to show that the reality does not match the CFSP’s rhetoric on the Mediterranean. In other words, is the EU a coherent and effective entity in International affairs (applied here to the Mediterranean). The methodology used here consists of a set of hypotheses which are then empirically tested by two case studies all situated geographically in the Mediterranean and therefore part of the EMP. The first part of the paper looks at the methodology before two case studies are explored in the second part: the Middle East and in particular the Middle East Peace Process and North Africa, and in particular the conflict in Algeria. The focus is on the CFSP and therefore we do not get into the details of each specific case-study but simply refer the reader to the existing literature on the subject.