NATO’S Southern Flank and the threat of disruption

Abstract

The article explains the NATO approach to the Mediterranean after the Cold War and the different initiatives launched since 1994, their lack of conceptual consistency and their limitations. It explains first the lack of a strategy for the Med once the NATO Southern Flank lost its raison d´etre. Later, the article explains the pretension to create a “genuine partnership” and how it was a failure given the practical contradictions. The Arab revolutions were the swan song of the initiative. The embraced NATO regional order for the MENA collapsed and the importance of NATO Southern Flank reappeared. After that, the article explains the new attempts for designing some consistent policies for a broader Med in a new regional environment, the inertias and their lack of credibility. Projecting stability without a NATO strategy for the Med, shared with partners, weakens and limits the reach of the practical initiatives. In this regard, the new approach approved at the NATO Brussels summit of July 2018 is not convincing.