Challenging the Future: On Building a Culture of Confidence and Partnership in the Euro-Mediterranean

It may be a cliché, but it is also an evident truth that how we view the world subtly but definitely affects how we act in it. As proof, it might be worth recalling that the roots from the ancient Greek for the word geography portray the idea of a "mental map," an illustration of the world as we choose to see it. How we draw that map subtly but vitally determines not only what we see but how we will act in that world.

When we speak of the business of security--for the individual, the state, the community, and entire geographic entities--we soon find ourselves mired in a complex web of endlessly complex contradictions. Nowhere do these contradictions seem more present than when we consider the geography of the Euro-Mediterranean region. Yet when we speak of the Euro-Mediterranean, especially in terms of security and stability, our conceptual mental maps should perhaps not just consider physical geography but political, economic, and cultural geography as well.

One of the aspects of the broadening future security architecture in Europe often overlooked from an American perspective over the past decade is that the Euro-Mediterranean is not strictly a geopolitical community where common aspects of security and common interests can be addressed. North Atlantic Treaty Organization expansion, in other words, is not the only security measure being tested in the evolving Europe. In November 1995, the foreign ministers of twenty-seven European and Mediterranean countries agreed on the need to develop long-term partnership-building measures--organized into three "baskets" (political, economic, and cultural)--in the region and to focus on global stability and the common (mis)perceptions that contribute to it. ¹ Despite the symbolic progress that has occurred since the Barcelona Conference, however, it remains true that to speak honestly about Mediterranean security is to enter a conceptual minefield. ²

Some observers insist that it remains impossible to consider the Mediterranean as a geopolitical whole. The concept of an overarching Euro-Mediterranean dialogue indeed runs into trouble when competing notions of security--"hard" versus "soft," human versus state, and cultural integrity versus economic interdependence--begin to threaten the entire strategic construct by which one could even envision a system architecture that would ensure a more certain Euro-Mediterranean relationship, particularly in terms of the North-South dynamic. The reality is that Europe and the Mediterranean are not simply divided by a North-South relationship (as some critics of the Barcelona Process might suggest the dialogue implies).

Other difficulties also abound. For example, since the United States was not a participant in the original Barcelona Conference, some admittedly Americo-centric critics might argue that future Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, without U.S. support, is predestined for failure. From yet another perspective, it could well seem that the United States lacks interest and desires that Europe and the Mediterranean nations work out their own particular partnerships in the future. Despite the frequent declaration that the Mediterranean region is a vital American interest, for example, the two national security strategies of the United States published in 2000 explicitly mention neither the Mediterranean per se as an intrinsic identity nor the Barcelona Process, even once. ³ To date, there is no new Bush national security strategy, and there is not likely to be one until 2002.

While all of these perspectives reveal certain truths, they have their limitations, as well. What is happening in Europe, whether one refers to it as cooperative security or comprehensive security, has implications for regions beyond the Mediterranean in the next century. In essence, a grand experiment in security architecture is taking place. It is not clear that this experiment is doomed to failure.

Regarding various communal approaches in the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue that may have been empowered by the Barcelona Process, there are several concepts that might prove...