Enhancing the Efficacy of the EuroMed Partnership through intensified Iterations. EUMA Papers, Vol.5, No.1 January 2008

Boening, Astrid B. (2008) Enhancing the Efficacy of the EuroMed Partnership through intensified Iterations. EUMA Papers, Vol.5, No.1 January 2008.

Abstract

[From the introduction]. This paper argues that the ambitious goals formulated during the Barcelona Process in November 1995 address those elements which have been recognized in the literature as significant in enhancing the reciprocal relationship between economic development, political stability and socio-cultural understanding within and among regions. While there has been no shortage of initiatives to contribute to the socio-economic and political stabilization of the Magreb and Mashriq in past years, such as the G-8’s Broader Middle East and North Africa Fora for the Future in 2004 - 2006 (in which the EMP was included), for example, as cooperative efforts for regional civil society and business groups to express their reform goals to their governments and to “advance the universal values of human dignity, democracy, economic opportunity and social justice” (U.S. Department of State November 7. 2005, 1), few have succeeded in contributing to a unified zone of peace, not to mention in establishing a security community in Karl Deutsch’s terms, and much less to establishing a Euro-Mediterranean security complex in Buzan and Waever’s terminology, aside from NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue. In fact, the International Crisis Group calls the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative “imperiled at birth” (ICG briefing 7 June 2004), 2). Nevertheless, regional integration in the Middle East has made strides in the past decade especially, e.g. in a broader context with the Gulf Cooperation Council 1 taking an active role in balancing between trade with Iran and their support of Sunnis in Iraq (Kerr and Bozorgmehr, 2007).