Regional Security through Synergistic Integration: A Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex? Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5, No. 13 June 2008

Boening, Astrid B. (2008) Regional Security through Synergistic Integration: A Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex? Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5, No. 13 June 2008.

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the recent Iraq war shows that there are, at least with respect to the Greater Middle East, no “quick fixes” for regional security, but that the painstaking process of political, economic and social development and harmonization (e.g. the “EuroMediterranean Partnership-paradigm”) between the northern and southern members of the EMP has to be accomplished step by step to not only be inclusive of the great heterogeneity of peoples and systems in the Euro-Mediterranean region, but to also ensure that all share in the fruits of this development. Hence the commitment by all EMP-members to this collective security region is essential, as in its absence the consequences are felt by all, such as the illegal migration of economically desperate North Africans to Europe, or the militancy of Palestinians. Since the social, political and economic interdependence – and herewith the mutual security interests - among EMP-members is so complex, I propose in this paper to change Buzan and Waever’s conception of the Middle Eastern Regional Security complex (MERSC) to the epistemologically more appropriate concept of a “Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex” (EMRSC), operating within the Euro-Med Partnership.