The Establishment of a Euro-Med Conflict-Prevention Center

This essay examines the concept of conflict prevention with a specific emphasis on the European-Mediterranean area in post-Cold War relations. Despite the uncertainties that accompany any conflict-prevention measure, it should be possible to define in advance a general strategy. This essay offers a set of clearly defined rules, principles, and mechanisms that form the basis of a strategic planning doctrine that can be applied whenever crisis situations emerge.

Since the launching of the Barcelona process in November 1995, the foreign ministers of twenty-seven European-Mediterranean countries have agreed on the need to develop and sustain partnership-building measures. While recognizing the constraints that currently exist, a commitment was also made to focus on the concept of global stability and the need to develop common perceptions of the factors that contribute to it. ¹

The annex to the "Chairman's Formal Conclusions" at the Third Euro-Med Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Stuttgart in April 1999 provides a specific framework for formulating a Euro-Med charter for peace and stability for the first time. The guidelines emphasize that the charter will serve as a functional instrument for the implementation of the principles of the Barcelona Declaration. ²

The annex stipulates that the establishment of an enhanced political dialogue, in an appropriate institutional framework and at adequate governmental levels, will be a priority of the foreign ministers. It also states that partnership-building measures, good neighborly relations, subregional cooperation, and preventive diplomacy will be developed in an evolutionary way and strengthened progressively. It is within this context that the establishment of a Euro-Med conflict-prevention center (EMCPC) should take place. The primary function of the center would be to enhance political dialogue in order to prevent tensions and crises as outlined in the annex. This function would include establishing specific arrangements for conflict prevention and formulating partnership-building measures that promote crisis prevention.

The Guidelines for Elaborating a Euro-Med Charter for Peace and Stability in the annex already spell out the parameters within which the EMCPC can be set up. These include: encouraging consultations between countries to establish structures for crisis-prevention meetings; developing procedures of clarification, mediation, and conciliation for settling disputes between parties by peaceful means of their own choice; encouraging judicial settlement of differences and disputes; acceding and adhering to appropriate international conventions; and setting up a structure of workshops that identify root causes of instability and tension.

The Concept of Conflict Prevention

The first step that needs to be taken prior to the setting up of an EMCPC is to identify the circumstances in which effective action could be considered and what types of subsequent action could be taken to prevent a conflict breaking out or escalating. An operational definition of prevention includes intervening at the right moment to prevent social, ethnic, and political tensions from developing into violent conflict. In practice this means pressuring a state to start negotiating with the groups or communities party to the conflict and to introduce the structural reforms needed to defuse the crisis.

There is no doubt that these are demanding tasks. Adequate resources are required to identify and monitor inequalities and tensions between different linguistic or ethnic communities. Resources are also needed to support the analytical capacity to pinpoint the causes and potential development of a situation. A particular effort must be made to ensure that the analysis, diagnosis, and recommendations for action remain unbiased and objective.

Conflict prevention, therefore, consists of concerted actions whose aim is to deter, resolve, and/or halt disputes before they erupt: that is to say, before any escalation of internal or external violence occurs. ³

Conflict prevention requires accurate knowledge, a precise assessment of the problem, and mobilization, all of which are complex due to the varied nature of interethnic conflicts. It is therefore essential to be able to distinguish symptoms of instability as a set of distinctive preliminary signs, such as repressive measures...