Michelle Pace

Paradoxes and contradictions in EU democracy promotion in the Mediterranean: the limits of EU normative power

Disciplinary debates about the challenge of liberal democracy in the Mediterranean suggest that the underlying constraints in the region, such as the nature of authoritarian regimes, economic underdevelopment, and the nature of rentier states, pose severe tests for external actors like the European Union (EU) seeking to encourage political reform. These debates have, however, failed to address the question of how and why liberal democracy per se achieved normative status. This article seeks to take this debate forward by examining the substance of the EUs efforts at democracy promotion in the Mediterranean. It does this first by explaining the EUs diagnosis of the Mediterranean ‘condition’, which highlights the logic behind the EUs prescription for democratization specifically in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This sheds light, second, on the inherent paradoxes and contradictions in the EUs push for democracy in the MENA. The article concludes by arguing that EU actions limit any potential for normative impact in the MENA because of the lack of coherence in EU policy.

The Arab Uprisings in Theoretical Perspective: An Introduction

The so-called ‘Arab Awakening’ is a momentous event that surprised both scholars and policy makers. For over a decade the paradigm of authoritarian resilience had dominated studies of the Arab world, almost entirely replacing the democratization paradigm that had been prominent throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This inter-paradigm debate on how best to explain and interpret the politics of the Arab world now calls for a review, in light of the Arab uprisings. The contributions to this themed issue offer a first attempt at highlighting some of the theoretical issues that should inform our rethinking of this debate thus far. Overall the issue thus aims at making a theoretical contribution by providing a deeper insight into the socio-economic–political structures and the new actors that led to the uprisings in the Arab world. It also explores and considers the opportunities and constraints that these structures offer for sharpening our theoretical tools – which may in turn lead us to use the paradigms and models available to us more flexibly. The case studies that this themed issue deals with by no means exhaust all the issues and case studies that need to be re-thought since the Arab uprisings of December 2010 to date. The aim is to provide useful insights for others to apply more broadly across the whole region.

The EU's democratization agenda in the Mediterranean: a critical inside-out approach

Democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a central pillar of the foreign policy of both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), despite the failure of ‘democracy by imposition’ in Iraq. A recent relative military success in fighting insurgents still leaves a problematic political reality where war-lordism and a weak central government make democracy a difficult goal to achieve. Despite the embedding of the Iraqi government’s control, the growing numbers of actors who seem prepared to take part in politics according to democratic norms /rules of the game may yet be outflanked by extremists. The fragmentation of Shi’a and Sunni communities into numerous sectarian political organizations and the reluctance of many Sunnis to participate in formal politics mean that some eschew violence while others perpetrate violence on a daily basis. In addition, external actors plough on with democracy promotion efforts even though there are still significant contradictions between the objectives of the policy and its instruments. To a large extent, post-2003 American policy in Iraq has focused attention of both scholars and policymakers on the methods through which the EU attempts to export democracy in the MENA region, such as positive political engagement with authoritarian regimes, the promotion of economic reforms, and the strengthening of civil society activism. Rather than concentrating on the relations between the incumbent authoritarian regimes and the opposition in the relevant countries, and on the degree to which these relations are affected by EU efforts at promoting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law (an outside-in approach), this collection of articles inverts the

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

This article assesses the European Unions Mediterranean policy from a discursive perspective and focuses specifically on the actual, identifiable impact of the Unions security discourse. In doing so it seeks to demonstrate how the Unions Mediterranean security policy has impacted on issues of identity. The implicit reference to sub-regional cooperation in the Unions 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’.

The EU's Interpretation of the ‘Arab Uprisings’: Understanding the Different Visions About Democratic Change in EU‐MENA Relations

This article focuses on how the EU has interpreted the Arab uprisings as they unfolded in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since December 2010. EU actors have long acknowledged limits in the EU’s strategy towards its southern neighbourhood, which largely bypasses the demands of local populations. The article analyzes the EU’s efforts at recreating an ‘enhanced’ framework of support for political reforms in the south. It concludes that the EU and local partners in the south still have different ‘visions’ regarding democratic change, which shows the limitations of the EU’s understanding of the MENA region.

The European Union, security and the southern dimension

Abstract With the coming into force of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Union (EU) annunciated what one could term an ‘inclusionist approach’ to security whereby this policy framework was based on supposedly joint commitments by all parties concerned to ‘cooperative security’. However, EU actions on the ground in the south have shown that, despite good intentions, such cooperative security endeavours have, thus far, hardly materialised. The result instead is an ‘exclusionist’ policy, where the reduction of illegal migration from the south takes top priority in EU security discourse. Post-9/11, in the policy area of ‘counter-terrorism’ measures, the EU likewise demarcates ‘liberal zones of civilisation’ from ‘illiberal’ ones, leaving the dirty work of counter terrorism to countries such as Egypt and Morocco. In terms of governmentality, this may be described as a ‘surveillance and control’ approach to security: therefore, it is argued here that the EU, through its governance model, is actually enabling further in-security and in-stability in the south.

Liberal or social democracy? Aspect dawning in the EU's democracy promotion agenda in the Middle East

This article questions how liberal democracy has come to symbolise an ideal, or a universal set of values ready to be exported elsewhere in the world.1 It critically assesses the European Unions (EUs) almost messianic mission to promote its successful project of liberal democracy, and the ways in which the EU seeks to teach others about its meaning while refusing to aspect learn about alternative forms of political organisation in different contexts. It discusses the implications of such a narrow framing of EU conceptions of liberal democracy, drawing on extensive fieldwork carried out in Palestine and Egypt in September 2007 and March 2008, respectively. The article argues for a new framing of political transformation in the Middle East. It concludes by employing Aletta Norvals notion of aversive democracy to highlight the need for recognition of crucial aspects of political change that stem from what is emerging in the Middle East.

Imagining Co-presence in Euro-Mediterranean Relations: The Role of ‘Dialogue’

This article attempts to draw upon the work of a key thinker on dialogue, Mikhail Bakhtin, to shed light on dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. It also draws upon the work of Bruce Tuckmans 1965 forming, storming, norming and performing group development model. By applying these theoretical frameworks to the specific case of Euro-Mediterranean relations, the article aims to uncover the challenges facing EU-Mediterranean partners in developing mutual relations through dialogue. It also suggests ways in which obstacles to improved Euro-Mediterranean dialogic ties could be overcome.

Culture and community in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership: a roundtable on the third basket, Alexandria 5–7 October 2003

Almost eight years into the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), social and cultural co-operation between the European Union (EU) and the 12 partner countries in the southern Mediterranean is still in its infancy. Although the third basket was originally considered as one of the main innovations within Euro-Mediterranean relations, its pitfalls prevail – a fact that is reflected in the lack of a common shared discourse within academic as well as practitioner circles.

The Impact of European Union Involvement in Civil Society Structures in the Southern Mediterranean

As the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary in November 2005, its achievements remain rather modest, particularly within the third basket. In contrast to the widespread optimistic expectations that accompanied the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in November 1995, the first ten years of the “Barcelona Process” have proved a disappointment for those who had hoped that it might provide a viable strategic approach that would go beyond the European Union’s (EU) long-standing concentration on trade and economic issues. In light of this somewhat disappointing overview and the increasing importance that is given to intercultural dialogue and civil society co-operation across the EuroMediterranean space in the aftermath of 9/11, a two-day international workshop was initiated by Richard Gillespie (University of Liverpool), Michelle Pace (University of Birmingham) and Tobias Schumacher (European University Institute in Florence) in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in Rabat, Morocco (4–5 December 2004). Reflecting the currently evolving Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue of Cultures and Civilisations in Alexandria, and following up on a similar initiative organized as a roundtable in Egypt during October 2003, this workshop brought together leading civil society activists, social scientists and civil servants from Europe and North Africa to discuss and identify the main obstacles and opportunities for Euro-Mediterranean civil society co-operation. Mourad Errarhib of the FES offices in Rabat welcomed the participants to what promised to be a very stimulating two-day workshop. As the third basket has persistently lacked a commonly shared discourse on civil society, the workshop started off with a debate on civil society co-operation in the Euro-Mediterranean area.