@article{article_791221, title={THE EUROPEAN UNION’S NORTH AFRICA POLICY: A DEFENSIVE NEOREALIST PERSPECTIVE}, journal={Marmara Üniversitesi Avrupa Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi}, volume={27}, pages={371–391}, year={2019}, DOI={10.29228/mjes.20}, author={Zengin, Sibel}, keywords={Defensive Neorealism, EU - North Africa Relations, Migration, Terrorism, energy security, failed states, trade and economic issues}, abstract={North Africa is Europe’s immediate neighborhood, hence is of strategic importance for European security. While Mediterranean Africa plays an important role in trade and economic issues for the Union; migration, terrorism, energy security and the issue of failed states have become the main security problems of the region through the post-Cold War era. Closely linked to that, the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010/11 triggered a troubled transformation process in North Africa, where the consequences and aftermath of the events seriously threatened European security and other important interests in the region. This has coupled with the rapidly expanding role of new rising powers, Russia and China in particular, fostering a new multipolar regional context in North Africa where the US and the EU have already had a competition in redesigning the architecture of the region, notwithstanding the considerable interaction and cooperation between the two. Accordingly, the years after the start of the Arab Spring has also brought the survival issue to the fore of the Union ever more. In search of balance, it has persistently sought to preserve its status quo in its Mediterranean South, seeking to survive, at the same time hesitant about its hegemonic ideals over the region. This paper aims to apply a systemic theory, namely defensive neorealism on European foreign policy behavior in North Africa by examining its interests on the region over years based on power calculations and future intentions under the international systemic pressure. The method of the paper is hence the application of a theory (defensive neorealism) to a specific case (the case of the EU’s relations with North Africa). It suggests that the EU has arguably taken a defensive and soft power-projection attitude into the region by balancing its aims and security interests towards its southern Mediterranean neighbors.}, number={2}, publisher={Marmara University}