Analysing Middle East Foreign Policies: The Relationship with Europe

In the post-9/11 climate, the role of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) states in Europe’s regional security environment and international politics has become more than ever a focus for attention, but remains ill-understood. This book provides a framework for the analysis of Middle Eastern foreign policies in general, and for understanding these states’ relations with Europe in particular. The book fills a gap in the literature on Euro-Middle Eastern relations by adopting a south-to-north perspective, using the tools of Foreign Policy Analysis to examine the determinants of the foreign policies of the MENA states themselves: only thus can one hope to arrive at a genuine understanding of what underlies these states’ evolving policy orientations and behaviour towards Europe. The volume starts by laying out a conceptual framework for analysis, and examining the domestic, regional, and international environments that condition MENA foreign policies. Actual policy output is then systematically investigated through a wide range of country case studies ranging from the Maghreb and the Mashreq to the Gulf and Turkey. Europe is treated throughout both as a target of those foreign policies, and as part of the environment that shapes them. The result of a two-year project sponsored by the European University Institute’s Mediterranean Programme, the book helps bridge the divide between Middle East expertise and the discipline of International Relations. The systematic comparative analysis of MENA states’ foreign policy with special reference to Europe throws new light on questions about ‘Third World’ foreign policy.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Analyzing the Foreign Policies of the Middle East and North Africa: A Conceptual Framework 3. The Three Environments of Middle East Foreign Policy Making and Relations with Europe 4. Analyzing Moroccan Foreign Policy and Relations with Europe 5. Egyptian-European Relations: From Conflict to Cooperation 6. Globalization and Generational Change: Syrian Foreign Policy between Regional Conflict and European Partnership 7. Lebanon and Europe: The Foreign Policy of a Penetrated State 8. Propaganda Versus Pragmatism: Iraqi Foreign Policy in Qasim’s Years 9. Dynamics and Determinants of the GCC States’ Foreign Policy, with Special Reference to the EU 10. Revolution, Theocratic Leadership and Iran’s Foreign Policy: Implications for Iran-EU Relations 11. The Determinants of Turkish Foreign Policy, and Turkey’s European Vocation 12. Shades of Opinion: The Oil Exporting Countries and International Climate Politics 13. Explaining International Politics in the Middle East: The Struggle of Regional Identity and Systemic Structure 14. Afterword: Small States’ Diplomacy in the Age of Globalization: An Omani Perspective

About the Author :
Gerd Nonneman is Reader in International Relations & Middle East Politics at Lancaster University, Associate Research Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and Executive Director of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Among his previous books are Iraq, the Gulf States & the War; War & Peace in the Gulf; The Middle East and Europe; Muslim Communities in Europe; and Political and Economic Liberalization.