SECURITY AS A COMPONENT OF COMPHERENSIVE POLICY

Year 2003, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 1 - 8, 01.07.2003

àlvaro De Vasconcelos

Abstract

All the signatories of the Barcelona Declaration claim to support a comprehensive security concept, as is the case with the members of the Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation in the Mediterranean Mediterranean Forum . It is not clear, however, that they all share a common understanding of what that concept is and we need to ask the question, to what extent comprehensive security means the same thing for all the states concerned, and for the different national constituencies within them? Furthermore, to what extent is the dominant role given to the war on terrorism generating ambiguity over such a concept, on the one hand, and contributing to mutual suspicions between North and South? What has been the contribution of post-11 September attitudes towards the adoption of a security vision towards issues that are really concerned with social and law-and-order issues? These are fundamental questions for the future of the European-Mediterranean relations, in particular for the EuroMediterranean Partnership emp and initiatives such as the Mediterranean Forum. In troubled times such as those that we are living through now, it is all the more important to clarify concepts, to make sure we understand what we mean and to avoid dangerous oversimplifications.