European Responses to Security Threats in the Mediterranean in the Early 21st Century

Abstract

AbstractAccording to the European Security Strategy (ESS 2003) European security cannot be tackled without considering the security of neighbouring countries (chap. 6 by Bailes). Threats to the security in countries in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean can rapidly become security threats for the European Union (EU) as a whole, and can particularly affect countries of Southern Europe. In this context, the Euro-Mediterranean area has been described as a single security complex (Biscop 2003: 191) or as a system of security complexes (Bremberg Heijl 2007: 2). Similar considerations were also made from a sub-regional perspective for the Western Mediterranean (Haddadi 1999). Moving beyond this debate, this chapter attempts to highlight the threats affecting the Euro-Mediterranean area, or some countries that comprise it. It examines to what extent the European Union has succeeded in providing sufficient cooperation mechanisms for improving security conditions in the region.KeywordsEuropean UnionSecurity ThreatCivil ProtectionFundamental FreedomInternational TerrorismThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.