home > by publication type > daily analysis > A Mediterranean Rendezvous
Email
| Author: | Lee Hudson Teslik |
|---|
(AP/Burhan Ozbilici)
Nicolas Sarkozy is nothing if not ambitious. The French president wants to overhaul his country's economic and military policies, redefine how Europe thinks about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and collective defense, and set things right in several former French colonies in North Africa and the Middle East. Sarkozy's latest project melds some of these objectives. Having recently assumed the presidency of the European Union, Sarkozy pushed through an idea he first broached the night he was elected—a Union for the Mediterranean (EurActiv), which formally came into existence July 13.
The aim of the new body, Sarkozy says, is to bind a diverse group of twenty-seven EU countries and seventeen North African and Middle Eastern states into a more coherent bloc. The hope is that the alliance will help members of the union to navigate shared concerns (CSMonitor) including immigration, counterterrorism, the environment, and economic development. The plan has had its skeptics. Germany balked when it seemed France might be moving to form a bloc that would rival the European Union without consulting Berlin. Turkey dragged its feet (Turkish Daily News) on approving the plan until it got full assurance from France that doing so would not affect its EU admission process. Britain's foreign minister (who supports Turkish accession) emphasized the point (EUBusiness), saying the Mediterranean Union "is not, repeat not, an alternative to enlargement of the EU."
Even so, it remains to be seen what the union will be able to accomplish. With such a wide-ranging group of member states—from Spain to Libya to Mauritania to Jordan (the last two don't even border the Mediterranean)—a cohesive policy agenda seems unlikely. The union's objectives, skeptics say, are broad to the point of being unwieldy. Sarkozy hopes to head off Islamic militarism in North Africa, but Libya's leader Muammar Qaddafi, who is shunning the summit, says the bloc's formation will accomplish the opposite (Telegraph). Sarkozy hopes the union will stem illegal boat migration and human smuggling from Africa, but the Economist notes in a recent blog series from Mauritania that this goal is loaded with complications.
Analysts also question how the group will function in practice. The Financial Times says Sarkozy's blueprints have avoided critical questions about logistics, or how Muslim nations in North Africa and the Middle East will interact with their European counterparts—not to mention Israel. Financing for the bloc is yet another sticking point. Some money will come from the European Union, but other funding is meant to come from member states, some of which remain tepid about the very premise of the group.
The union's formation also raises a more basic question—what exactly is gained by founding a new bloc? The Economist, in a recent cover story, says global institutions have devolved into an "outdated muddle." Clubs—whether regional (ASEAN, EU, AU, SAARC), cultural/linguistic (Arab League, OIC), economic (IMF, World Bank), trade focused (Mercosur, OPEC, or, more broadly, the WTO), or military/security focused (NATO, SCO, OSCE), not to mention the bewildering array of "G" clubs (G7, G8, G11, G20, G33)—have proliferated in recent decades. Yet the result, the Economist says, has not necessarily been better governance. The FT's Gideon Rachman parodies "ineffectual international organizations" in a recent blog post, saying they often speak grandiosely on issues they have no power to influence. None of this minimizes the pressing issues faced by Mediterranean countries. It will be a feat, however, if Sarkozy is able to align competing interests and push through policy change in such a diverse forum.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.