Spain’s “Mediterranean turn” in a changing world

Abstract

The Mediterranean has been an essential axis for Spain´s foreign policy from the beginning of the 20th Century. However, Spanish Mediterranean policy was in fact predominantly Moroccan, with important international, colonial and security components. It was only at the end of the 20th century that an authentic Mediterranean Policy –the “Mediterranean turn” proper– emerged. This happened as a result of the standardization of Spain’s international role, with both Atlantic and European anchorage between 1982 and 1986. Spain would then play an important role as bridge and bridgehead thanks to her Southern borders, then also European and Atlantic borders. Likewise, Spain was bound to shape a self-defined Mediterranean policy which crystallised in the so-called Barcelona Process and opened the way to an ambitious revision of the scale and the strategies in her relationship with the Maghreb

Keywords

• historia de la política exterior de españa
• historia del mediterráneo
• españa actual