MIDDLE EAST POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: IN SEARCH OF THE EFFECTIVE STRATEG

Abstract

The article examines the main directions of the Middle East policy of the European Union, which has intensified in recent years on the basis of the concept of «strategic autonomy». This concept itself is generated by the disappointment of European elites in the approaches of the United States both to the security problems of the Old World and to a number of crisis situations in the Middle East. The differences between Washington and Brussels were especially clear during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump (2016–2020), but they did not disappear under the administration of Democrat Joe Biden, which did not live up to the hopes of a number of European politicians for «restoring American leadership in the world». The need for Europeans to increasingly rely on their own strengths and resources is determined today not only by the situation around Ukraine, but also by Israel’s military actions against Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip, direct clashes between Israel and Iran, and the intensification of pro-Iranian groups in a number of countries in the Middle East. The author believes that the EU’s attempts to develop an adequate strategy to neutralize threats from the Middle East region, as well as to promote its interests there, have not brought results. Questions remain regarding the achievability of this goal in principle.