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This book provides an account of how the European Union has responded to the emergence of a new Middle East in the wake of the Arab spring and how far the EU has changed its foreign policies towards the Middle East and Africa. It explores the impact European policies and whether it has succeeded in meeting the challenge of the Arab Spring
List of contents
- 1: Introduction: the challenge of a new Middle East
- 2: Five analytical narratives
- 3: The redrawn contours of the Middle East
- 4: Prior to the upheavals
- 5: Redemption: helping transitions
- 6: Revisionist reflex: hindering transitions
- 7: The fading spectre of radicalism?
- 8: Syria, Iran and geopolitical upheavals
- 9: Libya: conflict and reconstruction
- 10: Economic and energy interests
- 11: The Arab-Israeli conflict: catalyst?
- 12: Conclusions
About the author
Richard Youngs is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a professor of international relations at the University of Warwick. He was previously director of the think-tank FRIDE; an EU Marie Curie Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for International Relations; and senior analyst at the UK Foreign Office. He is author of seven previous books on different aspects of EU foreign policy, the Middle East and democratization.
Summary
This book examines the European Union's response to the Arab spring, from late 2010 to the beginning of 2014. It investigates how far the EU changed its policies towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the aftermath of the Arab spring, and what impact European policies had in either helping or hindering democratization reforms during this period. It also explores what impact the Arab spring had on European security and economic interests.
Analytically the book unpacks the factors that best explain EU policy choices in the Middle East since 2010. It highlights how the responses to the Arab spring have changed the governance dynamics of the EU-Middle East relationship. The book assesses how far the EU foreign policy has succeeded in meeting the challenge of the Arab spring.
Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
