CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND CO-OPERATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE EU COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY

Abstract

The Mediterranean, crucible of races, crossroads of cultures and cradle of the three great monotheist religions, is also one of the most conflict-prone regions of our planet. The Mare Nostrum, scenario of the splendour and decadence of great empires, of successive conquests and dominations which have left indelible marks from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles, has become, at the end of the twentieth century, the frontier which divides the North, of opulence and paradise, from the developing countries. Apparently, its waves only serve to increase the distance between two worlds living back to back: East and West, from universes with different though complementary values, with disparate social models, who try to coexist in spite of many constant misunderstandings. This cultural conflict, which some Anglo-Saxon political scientists do not hesitate to label as a ‘clash of civilisations’1, has been increasing since the end of the 1980s due to the resurgence of integrist currents in the Arab-Islamic world and, above all, due to Arab society’s generalised rejection of Western values during and after the crisis brought on by the occupation of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War. This reaction just added to an endless number of clashes, of wasted chances for dialogue. In fact, only a few months before Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded the Emirate, two of the EU’s Mediterranean members, Italy and Spain, pleaded in favour of the celebration of a Conference on Security and Co-operation in the Mediterranean, following the example set by the meeting at Helsinki. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, this initiative sought to extend political and socio-economic stability and co-operation to the southern confines of the Old Continent. It was not a mere improvisation; already in the 1970s, the southern European countries contemplated the possibility of drawing their neighbours from the Maghreb and the Mashriq into the process initiated in the Finnish capital. However, their attempts came up against the refusal of some central and northern European states, who were for limiting the debate to the then embryonic dialogue with Eastern Europe.

References

1. 1 Huntington, Samuel P. (1996), The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Shuster, New York.
2. 2 Mac Liman, Adrián (1995), Initiative Euro-Méditerranéenne de l’Union Européenne: la réponse des pays tiers méditerranéens, Fundación CIDOB, Barcelona.
3. 3 Santer, Jacques (1995), ‘La sécurité et la défense de l’Union européenne’, Revue de l’OTAN, No. 6, November.
4. 4 Santer, ibid.
5. 5 De Lipkowski, (1996), La sécurité dans la région méditerranéenne, Rapport présenté au nom de la Commission politique à l’Assemblée de l’Union de l’Europe Occidentale, UEO, Paris, 4 November.