The Mediterranean: Clashing Patterns of Governance

Abstract

This article was written a year before the political upheaval in the Arab world began, but that does not diminish the relevance of the thesis advanced. The changes occurring in Tunisia and Egypt are a clear indication that the gap separating the Mediterranean's northern shores from its southern rim is primarily of a political nature (Gabriel 2009, pp. 305-332). What burdens the Mediterranean is not – as Samuel Huntington suggests – a clash of civilizations but clashing patterns of governance. It is this divide that, so far, has hindered the establishment of relations and structures that are more than traditional and bilateral.The divide is anything but new. As the article shows, three different eras can be distinguished. There was a first or pre-modern gap that existed before the formation of the European nation states in the 17th century. There was a second or modern divide which ended with the Second World War, and there followed a third or post-modern gap that began with the formation of the European Union. The present divide shows in terms of sovereignty. Whereas the states to the north, as members of the supranational European Union, are willing to redefine (and qualify) their sovereign independence, the states of the southern shore cling rigidly to their more recently gained sovereignty and independence. The new division, therefore, is characterized by political transformation on one side of the Mediterranean and by continued adherence to fairly traditional conceptions of sovereignty on the other side.