Mediterranean Security Research Articles

The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967–1974 by Othon Anastasakis and Katerina Lagos, eds.

<i>The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967–1974</i> by Othon Anastasakis and Katerina Lagos, eds.

China's One Belt One Road Project and Its Effects on Mediterranean Security

As a rising power, China, by following globalizing policies, has strengthened its place through industrial production with cheap labor and has become an important actor through investments regional and overseas, noticeably reaching an effective position. In this frame, by this study, China’s “One Belt One Road”, which constitutes the most known example of international expansionism policy and is called as “Silk Road”, was put under the scope, and the investments and constituted policies were examined. With that being said, the probability of the armament phases of the project and Turkey’s position in this project were analyzed from the perspective of China's changing naval force strategy, and predictions about possible emergent opportunities for Turkey–China relations were made.

A Mediterranean Region? Regional Security Complex Theory Revisited

This article argues that the shift from the bipolar structure of the Cold War international system to a more polycentric power structure at the system level has increased the significance of regional relations and has consequently enhanced the importance of the study of regionalism. It makes a case for a Mediterranean region and examines various efforts aimed at defining what constitutes a region. In so doing, it investigates whether the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) can be utilized to define a Mediterranean region and argues that the patters of amity and enmity among Mediterranean states are necessary but not sufficient to identify such a region. It suggests that economic, energy, environmental, and other factors, such as migration and refugee flows should be taken into consideration in order to define the Mediterranean region. It also claims that the Mediterranean security complex includes three sub-complexes. The first is an eastern Mediterranean sub-complex that revolves mainly - albeit not exclusively - around three conflicts: the Greek-Turkish conflict, the Syrian conflict, and the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. The second is a central Mediterranean sub-complex that includes Italy, Libya, Albania and Malta and which revolves mainly around migration with Italy playing a dominant role due to its historical ties to both Libya and Albania. The third is a western Mediterranean security sub-complex that includes France, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain and Portugal. This sub-complex it centered around France, the migration question and its associated threats, such as terrorism, radicalism, and human trafficking. In conclusion, it is concluded that the Mediterranean security complex is very dynamic as there are states (i.e. Turkey) that seem eager and capable of challenging the status quo thereby contributing to the process of the complexs internal transformation.

The Monster from Elba: Napoleon’s escape reconsidered

This article argues that historians have overlooked and underplayed a major British strategic error, namely that Napoleon’s escape from Elba in February 1815 was a preventable calamity that put the hard-won victory of the sixth coalition at risk. It had the potential to change the course of history because the allied victory at Waterloo was by no means assured. All of the allies bear some portion of the blame for Napoleon’s escape, but none more so than the British, and especially the Royal Navy, which was the only allied service capable of preventing Napoleon’s escape. Instead, Lord Castlereagh prioritized coalition politics over Napoleon’s fate, and the navy prioritized the ongoing War of 1812 and demobilization over Mediterranean security. The British committed these blunders even though they knew that Napoleon was a flight risk, and even though the cost of reinforcing Napoleon’s guard was dwarfed by the cost of dealing with his escape.

The Mediterranean Security Problem in the Foreign Policy of Great Britain (Spring 1938 — Spring 1939)

The Mediterranean Security Problem in the Foreign Policy of Great Britain (Spring 1938 — Spring 1939)

The Regional Integration as a Solution to Face the Mediterranean Security Challenges

Abstract: The aim of this analysis is to do a short review of the Mediterranean Region situation in terms of Security. The regional integration will be tackled as the unique solution to face risks, threats and conflicts inside its frame. The multilateral initiatives which constitute the called “Architecture of Security” offer models to achieve this aim. The present contribution will be focused on the often unknown 5+5 Initiative of Defense. The scientific intention is not to point out a final solution to the troubling scene of the Mediterranean basin; it is just an approach to highlight the state of art on this issue. Keywords: Mediterranean region, Security Policy Architecture, regional integration and cooperation, 5+5 Initiative of Defence.

Crisis, Routine, Consolidation: The Politics of the Mediterranean Migration Crisis

The current ‘migration crisis’ is framed as a moment of reckoning in the EU’s dealings with its Mediterranean neighbourhood. Yet to what extent is crisis the most useful tool to account for migration and European border control practices in the current context? An exclusive focus on crisis, we argue, is misleading. To a large extent, the current crisis management builds on pre-existing practices and enables their consolidation. For us this is an invitation to discuss the relation between crisis, routine and consolidation in Euro-Mediterranean migration policies and practices. This intervention shows how ‘crises’ are spatio-temporally limited and used to further pre-existing migration control practices and techniques of governing. As such we interrogate what it means to talk of crisis versus routine in the field of Mediterranean security practices.

La participación española en la Conferencia para la Seguridad y la Cooperación en Europa (CSCE): aportaciones al Acta Final de Helsinki

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe announcement provided Francoist Spain an excellent opportunity to join a multilateral forum aiming to promote security in Europe as well as a detente between the West and the Soviet Union. Spanish diplomacy, despite the relative international isolation of the country and the limits derived from the authoritarian nature of the Regime, designed a negotiation strategy contributing to gaining visibility and providing valuable contributions to the Final Act, such as the incorporation of the text on Mediterranean security. They also reached a wording of the Act principles agreeable to Spain’s interest and to the progress made in United Nations. On the basis of the analysis of the Spanish delegation reports, this article studies both the lights of the work done in Helsinki and Geneva and its shades, the latter being identified with the red lines established by the Francoist Regime. In terms of human rights and especially regarding free circulation and exchange of information.

For the Sake of the MediterraneannDe-Securitize the Arab Spring!

The so called Arab Spring has put The Mediterranean in an era of remaking. Over again, Mediterranean security is being at stake. This paper examines the profound implications of securitizing the Arab Spring on The Mediterranean Security Complex, as developed in Barry Buzan and Ole Waever’s Regions and Powers (Buzan and Waever 2003). The theoretical framework of the paper takes advantage of Buzan and Waever’s work on Regional Security Complexes and securitization/de-securitization processes they are defined through. Then, it attempts at casting light on the defects of any discursive discourse that aims at over-presenting the Arab Spring as a security threat that urges “exceptional” perspectives to be dealt with. Afterward, the paper concludes with a call for de-securitizing the Arab Spring as a necessary step on any future roadmap to secure the region.

Gas finds complicate eastern Mediterranean security

The discovery of natural gas has complicated rivalries in the eastern Mediterranean, an area already full of long-standing security issues.

European–Mediterranean Security and the Arab Spring: Changes and Challenges

The policy of the European Union (EU) toward the Mediterranean has undergone two main metamorphoses during the last 25 years. In 1995, it started from a collective security idea with the Barcelona Process, but due to the poor success of this collective approach, it underwent a “realist turn” with the creation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2004. The Arab Spring in 2011, by questioning authoritarianism, influenced the perception of what is recognized as a security problem and who can define it. The authoritarian rulers and their supporting security forces are now challenged by their populations, and societal circumstances are so unstable that nearly every domestic problem can be politically given a spin to become a security risk. Aside from this, violent conflicts and civil wars demand an answer from the EU. In this situation, the EU's answer to the Arab Spring does not directly respond to the changing security situation in the Mediterranean. It emphasizes domestic democracy and civil society but does not take up the potential risk discourses. Concerning violent conflicts, the EU as a community is not at all active in the region but leaves this field to its member states, NATO, the Arab League, and the United Nations. Thus, the perceptions, ideas, and needs of Mediterranean security between the EU and the Southern partner states still differ harshly and seem to disregard the risk dimension of the Mediterranean security problems in this period of Arab transition.

Mediterranean Security Revisited

At the dawn of the last century, the European and Mediterranean countries failed to reach a consensus on building a cooperative security system. This article is an attempt at revisiting the concept of the Mediterranean security system and assessing the conditions for restarting security dialogue in the region. Upon recognition of the need for taking into account the new dimension of risks along with the traditional dimension of threats, the article reviews the insecurity factors of the Mediterranean region and the lesson learned in the security dialogue of the Barcelona Process. Some proposals about rehearsing that dialogue are advanced in the concluding section.

Italy's Role in Mediterranean Security and the Fight Against Terrorism

Gianfranco Fini is foreign minister of Italy.

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the CommonMediterranean Strategy? European Union Policy from a Discursive Perspective

This article assesses the European Union's Mediterranean policy from a discursive perspective and focuses specifically on the actual, identifiable impact of the Union's security discourse. In doing so it seeks to demonstrate how the Union's Mediterranean security policy has impacted on issues of identity. The implicit reference to sub-regional cooperation in the Union's Common Mediterranean Strategy may be read as a way to facilitate the lack of a clear definition of exactly what type of security or rather insecurity the European Union as a whole is trying to address when dealing with its ‘Mediterranean’.

Network or Labyrinth? The Challenge of Co-ordinating Western Security Dialogues with the Mediterranean

During the cold war, the Mediterranean was of limited interest to western security organizations, but as a consequence of the rising importance of Mediterranean security issues the WEU, NATO and the OSCE all initiated security dialogues with Mediterranean countries. Each of these organizations has its own particular approach to Mediterranean security with its own structures; there is little coordination between them. Participation in the dialogues is limited and they lack the comprehensive and multilateral character of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which appears to be the most suitable framework to realize the objective of creating a Mediterranean area of peace and stability. Aligning the programmes of activity of the other Mediterranean initiatives so that they complement those of the EMP would therefore seem be the most efficient and effective way of putting the available means to good use.

From East-West Rivalry to North-South Division: Redefining the Mediterranean Security Agenda

From East-West Rivalry to North-South Division: Redefining the Mediterranean Security Agenda

Security challenges in Europe's mediterranean periphery ‐ perspectives and policy dilemmas

Challenges to European security emanating from the southern Mediterranean have had a marked influence on European security policies during the 1990s. This article identifies the main themes in the debate on Mediterranean security and the policy dilemmas which these security challenges raise for European states and their multilateral security organizations. It is argued that Mediterranean security challenges cannot be fully understood without grasping the security implications of the presence of authoritarian and repressive regimes in the South. As European security policies aim at supporting ‘political stability’ in the South through development assistance, expansion of trade relations and military co‐operation, these policies also contribute to uphold an illegitimate status quo, which is often the very source of political instability and insecurity.

The changing mediterranean security environment: a transatlantic perspective

The changing mediterranean security environment: a transatlantic perspective

The relevance of European security structures to the Mediterranean (and vice versa)

The debate in the 1990s over the continuing relevance and scope of European security structures (NATO, the WEU and the OSCE) was not triggered by the issue of Mediterranean security, but rather by new security concerns within Europe resulting from the end of the cold war. Europe's awakening to the urgency of dealing with Mediterranean security came later, but when it did, the Mediterranean entered the European security debate. All three security organizations have embarked on dialogue with Mediterranean countries, but one must question how well qualified or disposed they are to take care of collective security within the Mediterranean, when they continue to regard the region as a matter of external security vis‐à‐vis Europe. With the Euro‐Mediterranean Partnership, which involves a more comprehensive approach to Mediterranean security, one might see the emergence of a political and security identity. Such an achievement in the Mediterranean context could represent a milestone in the EU's pursuit of a CFSP for itself.

The economic factor in Mediterranean security

The economic factor in Mediterranean security