1,720,982 research outputs found
Introduction:Entanglements in EU-Middle East Relations
No full textHave relations between the European Union (EU) and the Middle East really changed substantially or is there actually more continuity than usually assumed? The aim of this introductory chapter is to take stock of the continuities, ruptures and entanglements in EU-Middle East relations. Since the end of the Second World War, the decolonization process in the Middle East, the challenges of pan-Arabism, the US hegemony over the Middle East, the Venice Declaration, the aftermath of the Cold War, the intensification of US-European military presence in the Middle East and the Arab uprisings have all contributed to key moments of rupture in these relations. All these events represent flashpoints which expose vulnerabilities, weaknesses, fallacies and incoherencies in these relations. This introduction frames and presents the 41 chapters of this Handbook which are organized in six parts – Historical Constructions/Perspectives; Theoretical Approaches/Perspectives; Multilateralism and Geopolitical Perspectives; Contemporary Issues; Peace, Security and Conflict; Development, Economics, Trade and Society. Each chapter and collectively these contributions highlight how EU-Middle East relations are multifaceted, varied and complex. This Handbook provides a useful entry point for an informed exploration and nuanced understanding of the multiple themes, actors, structures and processes that mould these relations
Energy Cooperation: the leading light of the revised European Neighbourhood Policy?:The limits of the EU's functionalist extension
Full text linkTracing the evolution of energy cooperation in the context of the european neighbourhood policy (enp), this chapter argues that the 2011 enp review signifies a new step in line with the previous additive and dialectic pattern of change. On the one hand, after the attempts at decentred and lighter-weighted multilateral energy cooperation of the late 2000s, the revised enp placed the emphasis back on instruments to promote eu-centred regulatory harmonisation (here characterised as energy governance). On the other hand, the eu has put in place new instruments of energy diplomacy directly aimed at increasing its security of supplies. The chapter examines this double development, contrasting different explanations for why (and to what effect) the eu and neighbouring countries have engaged in those initiatives.keywordsenergy sectorcaspian regionenergy communityenergy cooperationfunctionalist extensionthese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves
Research Design in the study of the European Neighbourhood Policy
No full textThis chapter deals with the pitfalls and pathways of research design aimed at the study of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and maps out the literature on questions of knowledge ambition, research ontology and epistemology, and choices of approaches to the research object. We include a review of traditional research designs in ENP research, through a systematic meta-analysis of a selection of the most-cited articles on the ENP. Inspired by earlier work on awareness of research design in EU studies, ENP research is categorised according to typical choices of research design in the form of dichotomous trade-offs. The chapter then discusses how individual contributions to this volume deal with research design challenges of the past and present innovative ways of studying the revised ENP
Chapter 7 Unintended Consequences of State-building Projects in Contested States
Full text linkThe existing literature on state-building has focused mainly on
post-conflict cases and ‘conventional’ examples of statehood,
without taking into consideration the particularities of states that
remain internally and/or externally contested. The EU’s engagement
in Palestinian state-building through the deployment of
EUPOL COPPS and EUBAM Rafah has generated various types of
unintended consequences: anticipated and unanticipated, positive
and negative, desirable and undesirable, some of which fulfill and
some of which frustrate the initial intention. These have important
reverberations for the EU’s conflict resolution strategies in Israel
and Palestine, the most important being the strengthening of
power imbalances and the enforcement of the status quo
The European Union's Role in the Palestinian Territory: State-building through Security Sector Reform?
Full text linkThe aim of this paper is to shed light on the distinctive role of the EU as a state-builder in the case of the Palestinian Territory and examine how state-building can be conducted in a still on conflict society. Following the Oslo Accords, the EU engaged actively in the state-building project in the Palestinian Territory taking a number of initiatives on the ground. Ever since, security has been at the centre of Israeli-Palestinian relations as well as at the international community‟s effort to build a state called “Palestine”. Security has been a key issue in all Israeli-Palestinian agreements concluded during the interim period
up to 1999 and then, during the second intifada (2000), security became a cornerstone of all internationally-sponsored diplomatic initiatives and peace plans. Security also became synonymous with Palestinian statehood and it topped the diplomatic agenda in the recent re-launch of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians on October 2, 2010. To this end, the central aim of this paper is to examine the distinctive initiatives that the EU has taken in order to help the Palestinian Authority reform both its security and judiciary sectors as part of its broader state-building strategy towards the Palestinian Territory, as well as provide explanations on why these policies had so little impact. In doing so, the paper seeks to provide answers to the following questions: what conclusions can we gather from a detailed study of EU initiatives on the ground? Has the EU been an effective and coherent actor in the Palestinian Territory as far as security and judiciary sector reform is concerned? How are all these initiatives on the ground linked to the “high politics” of this conflict
EU–Lebanon Relations
No full textThis chapter seeks to map out the European Union (EU)’s relations with Lebanon since the 1965 Trade and Technical Cooperation Agreement. The chapter points to the strength of these relations and outlines major areas of cooperation between the EU and Lebanon (economic, political and security) – thus making the EU a strategic partner to Lebanon. With the Arab uprisings, the EU’s focus shifted to the Syrian refugee crisis and its management in the neighbouring countries, that is Lebanon. This emphasis on the Syrian refugee crisis is driven by the EU’s fear that those refugees might seek asylum in EU countries. Furthermore, the chapter highlights the wary response of the EU and its Member States (MS) to the ongoing crisis that erupted with the 17 October 2019 protests against the deteriorating economic situation and corruption of political elites. The chapter emphasises that despite this broad agenda, the focus of the EU has been on economic development and security, which dominated these relations not only prior to the Arab uprisings, but also afterwards. The chapter shows how Lebanon’s heterogeneous sectarian system that resulted in a rather failed state has influenced EU–Lebanon relations and blocked the economic and political reforms agreed with the EU
State-building without a state : the European Union's role in the occupied Palestinian territories after the Oslo Accords
No full textThe aim of this thesis is to shed light on the distinctive role of the European Union (EU) as a state-builder in the case of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). The thesis engages with distinctive literatures on liberal peace, peacebuilding, state-building, the EU and conflict resolution as well as Security and Judiciary Sector Reform. By synthesizing these literatures this research will try to test the EU effectiveness in the state-building project in the OPTs by reference to two main case studies: the EU’s initiatives in the domains of Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Judiciary Sector Reform (JSR) while at the same time addressing issues of the broader governance agenda and the rule of law.
Thus, the broader liberal peace and peacebuilding literature will help contextually to understand how state-building has been used as a tool for implementing the liberal peace, the distinctive literature on state-building will help to identify the ‘core’ state functions that institutions established should be able to run and the literature on conflict resolution will help to identify all tools and mechanisms that the EU has at its disposal in order to ‘build’ states. By drawing on these literatures, this thesis will set three criteria on which the effectiveness of the EU as a state-builder will be tested namely generation of legitimacy, coherence and regulation of violence/ability of enforcement.
The thesis is mainly empirically-oriented (drawing on almost 100 interviews that were conducted with EU, Israeli and Palestinian officials) and will focus on the two civilian missions that the EU has deployed in the OPTs (EUPOL COPPS and EUBAM Rafah) in order to help the Palestinian Authority reform its security sector as well as initiatives in the domains of judiciary sector reform and the rule of law (Seyada Project). The main argument of the thesis is that the EU has approached the state-building project from a technical aspect without linking it with clear political decisions and objectives. As a result, while initiatives in the domains of SSR and JSR have helped the PA improve the situation on the ground this was done at the expense of democracy and political objectives that would contribute to the ending of the Israeli Occupation
A Postcolonial Critique of EU-Middle East Relations
No full textThis chapter is not about the European Union per se. It is, however, about the “idea” of Europe as a force for good in international politics that informs the very being of the European Union and shapes its external relations with the Middle East. Terming this a “postcolonial critique” of EU–Middle East relations, this chapter is very much inspired by postcolonial studies’ conception of contemporary international relations as an outgrowth of hierarchies, discursive and material, between the Global North (the location of the coloniser) and the Global South (the “home” of the colonised), established under the guise of European empires. Subsequently, it demonstrates how the same hierarchies shaped the establishment of the European Union and the nature of its external relations, not least with the Middle East. But these hierarchies are not just a matter of history. They also have contemporary implications, and the chapter ends by exploring how the European Union’s self-conception as a force for good animates both the discursive manner in which it describes itself vis-a-vis the Middle East as well as the material nature of EU–Middle East relations
Their violence or ours?
No full textThe major European powers have played a key role in the development of authoritarian rule in the Middle East, not least by equipping various autocratic states with the means of violence necessary to sustain themselves. This chapter begins by charting European involvement in the region since the end of the Ottoman Empire, showing how direct rule evolved into support for the local regimes’ security forces after formal independence and through the crucial early years of state formation. There then follows an overview of European arms sales to the Middle East, which reveals the extent to which European powers have penetrated these markets. The relevant dynamics and wider political-economic context are then illustrated through the case study of UK arms sales to (and military cooperation with) the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It is argued that the long-established role of European powers (alongside that of the United States) enables state violence in the Middle East – including during and since the Arab uprisings – and provides a challenge to some commonly held assumptions about the nature of Western powers in the world
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