ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to answer why, how and under what conditions regional organizations contribute to security in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean region is currently characterized by instability in the wake of the Syrian civil war. Adding to this, a host of non-military threats and trans-boundary risks such as international terrorism, failed states as well as man-made and natural disasters affect the region. The issue of migration adds yet another item to the list of issues that call for enhanced cooperation, but region-level cooperation is lacking. Drawing upon insights from established perspectives and innovative approaches to international relations (IR), highlighting the limits and possibilities of security cooperation, this chapter explores the EU’s role in Mediterranean security. The EU is of special interest since it can be understood as functioning as a security community-building institution, providing cooperative regional frameworks that otherwise would not have been available to practitioners from member and non-member states. The findings presented here shed new light on how collective identity, power and cooperative practices relate to security in the Mediterranean. However, it is still uncertain whether the EU will be able to play a transformative role in a much more fragmented and instable Mediterranean region.
