Central European Journal of Public Policy (Dec 2014)
The Arab Uprisings and Euro-Mediterranean Security: The Regional Security Agenda of the European Union
Abstract
The 2010 Arab uprisings led to profound changes in the political landscape of the Southern Mediterranean, and came at a time of staggering Euro-Mediterranean relations. With prevailing turmoil and violence in Europe’s closest proximity, the Euromed relationship – heavily dominated by security objectives and concerns in the past – is facing new social, political and economic challenges. This work analyses what challenges have made it onto the security agenda of the European Union in response to the uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt between December 2010 and 2013. It does so by analysing the discourse of three institutions: the European Commission, the European Council and the Council of Ministers. Accordingly, it argues that security in the Euro-Mediterranean context may be analysed in the framework of the wider constructivist Copenhagen school of security studies, treating threats as politically constructed in the process of securitization. It emphasizes the different degrees of institutional involvement in framing the regional security agenda, and the vast application of security logic to migration and mobility as well as its absence in areas of biological and chemical weapons, extremism and weapons of mass destruction. This work’s final argument is that whilst the overall level of securitization throughout the three years remains low and partially inconsistent with the security priorities before 2010, the EU exhibited a particularly strong regional focus on Libya as well as a thematic one on migration and external borders.
