The external relations of the European Union with the Arab countries of the southern bank of the Mediterranean, institutionalised initially through the Barcelona process, then the ENP and today the Union for the Mediterranean, are predicated on the twin pillars of political stability and economic integration into a liberal free trade area. The approach is both a policy and a moral failure.
The Middle East is a very complex region with many factors causing states to enter into violent and intractable conflicts. The region has been adversely affected by climate change. This has led to the entire Middle East becoming dryer, thus meaning that water volumes, be it in aquifers or river basins, are declining. Therefore, water scarcity is steadily affecting food supply.
Since the second half of the 20th century, Islam has been reasserted as a socio-political force across the Muslim world. The past few decades have seen Islamist parties win elections in a number of Muslim countries, including Algeria, Palestine, and Turkey, and form the strongest opposition to Western-aligned ruling regimes in a host of others.
However big the political odds are, a rational-pragmatic input by the FDP could constructively impact the foreign policy discourse in Europe’s largest country
Al-Qaeda’s External Operations Unit has traditionally been the sole arm of the organization to conduct terrorist attacks in the international arena. Its last successful attack took place in London on July 2005. All subsequent attempts to carry out attacks have failed. Recent intelligence suggests new attacks may be imminent.
It has become generally assumed that ‘Liberal Peace Transitions’ offer a way out of local, civil, regional and international conflict, as well as complex emergences and development problems. All military, humanitarian, diplomatic, political, economic, and social, interventions since the end of the Cold War have been geared to this programme – with limited success.
The Roma, Gypsy and Traveller Communities are the largest ethnic minority within the EU, and one that has been comprehensively failed by various initiatives to end racism targeted at them. Northern Ireland in the bad old days had very little immigration, the tide was flowing in the other direction. Today, that it is no longer the case, but it remains a comprehensively segregated society.
At the time, that Tehran is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, one should look back to assess the legacies of a social phenomenon that arguably put Islam into the forefront of politics.
In recent years, there have been a number of challenges to international order emanating from various entities, including ‘Islamic extremists’ and, more generally, those ‘excluded’ from the benefits of globalisation; sometimes they are the same people.
While most studies on peaceful settlement of disputes see the substance of the proposals for a solution as the key to a successful resolution of conflict, a growing focus of attention shows that a second and equally necessary key lies in the timing of efforts for resolution (Zartman 2000). Parties resolve their conflict only when they are ready to do so–when alternative, usually unilateral, means of achieving a satisfactory result are blocked and the parties feel that they are in an uncomfortable and costly predicament. At that ripe moment, they seek or are amenable to proposals that offer a way out.
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