Europe S Middle East Dilemma

This book analyzes the principal landmarks in the evolution of a unified European stance toward the Middle East conflict, placing events in the context of the contemporary political and economic circumstances. It offers a theoretical scheme for the study of European political cooperation. .

The Middle East is a region of crises, conflicts and wars as much as it is a region of great potential and opportunity. However, the European Union and its member states have not yet found a viable strategic approach to meet both the challenges and opportunities in their immediate neighbourhood. The Europeans have not yet developed sufficient foreign and security policy mechanisms to pursue their interests effectively. How the European Union can support economic and political transformation processes throughout the region and thus contribute to a more stable, more prosperous and more democratic Middle East remains the subject of intense debate. The objective of this book is to provide a platform for this debate about the European Union's future role as a player in the Middle East, at a crucial moment in EU-U.S.-Middle East relations. As the European Union re-organizes its Mediterranean policies and the United States vote a new president into office, the authors of this book discuss a wide range of topics related to European foreign policy in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, Europe's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the state of transformation processes in the region.

The Middle East is a region of crises, conflicts and wars as much as it is a region of great potential and opportunity. However, the European Union and its member states have not yet found a viable strategic approach to meet both the challenges and opportunities in their immediate neighbourhood. The Europeans have not yet developed sufficient foreign and security policy mechanisms to pursue their interests effectively. How the European Union can support economic and political transformation processes throughout the region and thus contribute to a more stable, more democratic Middle East remains the subject of intense debate. The objective of this book is to provide a platform for this debate about the European Union's future role as a player in the Middle East, at a crucial moment in EU-U.S-Middle East relations. As the European Union re-organizes its Mediterranean policies and the United States vote a new president into office, the authors of this book discuss a wide range of topics related to European foreign policy in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, Europe's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the state of transformation processes in the region. Book jacket.

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What drives European foreign policy towards the wider Mediterranean and Middle East region? This collection takes an innovative approach to answering this question, by considering the impact of intra-European divisions on European polices towards this crucial region. European foreign policy has traditionally been defined by a clear division of labour: southern European member states take the lead in the EU’s southern neighbourhood, while central and northern European countries drive policies in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. The resulting north-south split has entrenched geo-clientalistic behaviour as a core principle of EU foreign policy-making and has fuelled a static intra-European competition over influence and resources. However, as European power dynamics shift, these old divisions no longer hold and northern and central European countries have been pushed towards a more pro-active role in the region. But what factors are shaping the foreign policies of these countries in the Mediterranean and Middle East? What has been their contribution to common EU polices? And does their growing activism signal an end to old geo-clientalistic division as a core driver of European foreign policy?

EU policy-makers have in the past decade endeavoured to formulate a substantial redefinition of the organisation's international ambitions. Attempting to carve out a new role as a key foreign and security policy actor in international politics, the EU has been involved in peace negotiations across the globe. Here, Taylan Ozgur Kaya looks at how this is enacted, with particular reference to the Middle East peace process. Expanding its political, diplomatic, economic and security role in the region, the EU, whilst still being the junior partner to the US, has increasingly played a more conspicuous role in the attempts to resolve (or at least mediate) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bearing this in mind, Kaya examines to what extent the EU manages to live up to its self-image as a key player in conflict resolution and crisis management in the region and beyond. With the financial and diplomatic future of Europe ever more in the spotlight, this book will appeal both to researchers of the Peace Process and to policy-makers.

As Europe’s Muslim communities continue to grow, so does their impact on electoral politics and the potential for inclusion dilemmas. In vote-rich enclaves, Muslim views on religion, tradition, and gender roles can deviate sharply from those of the majority electorate, generating severe trade-offs for parties seeking to broaden their coalitions. Dilemmas of Inclusion explains when and why European political parties include Muslim candidates and voters, revealing that the ways in which parties recruit this new electorate can have lasting consequences. Drawing on original evidence from thousands of electoral contests in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain, Rafaela Dancygier sheds new light on when minority recruitment will match up with existing party positions and uphold electoral alignments and when it will undermine party brands and shake up party systems. She demonstrates that when parties are seduced by the quick delivery of ethno-religious bloc votes, they undercut their ideological coherence, fail to establish programmatic linkages with Muslim voters, and miss their opportunity to build cross-ethnic, class-based coalitions. Dancygier highlights how the politics of minority inclusion can become a testing ground for parties, showing just how far their commitments to equality and diversity will take them when push comes to electoral shove. Providing a unified theoretical framework for understanding the causes and consequences of minority political incorporation, and especially as these pertain to European Muslim populations, Dilemmas of Inclusion advances our knowledge about how ethnic and religious diversity reshapes domestic politics in today’s democracies.