The Foreign Policies of the European Union's Mediterranean States and Applicant Countries in the 1990s

The contributors discuss these questions, and others, in a volume with chapters of differing quality. In an introduction, the distinguished editors set the stage for the discussion with clarity and precision. They describe the problem of formulating a strategy that will allow the Christian, democratic, wealthy EU countries to work together with the largely Muslim, authoritarian, impoverished applicant states to the east and south. They wisely puncture the view that only states having a Judeo-Christian heritage are capable of developing functioning democracies. The editors champion the future development of an EU common foreign and security policy that will oppose protectionism, encourage investment in the South, and shed paternalistic notions while mediating conflicts. This promising beginning is followed by an uneven road.

Laurent Meyrede's chapter on France is a paean to French policy making. He hails the realism of several French governments (through 1996) that extolled human rights and democracy but in practice paid closer attention to ensuring stability in North Africa through aid and investment. While this is a defensible position, Mayrede also describes the close and often closed network that has existed among French officials and their North African counterparts. He approves of these often highly personal connections that, in his view, make French policy work. This is an odd statement, given that the chapter begins with a quotation from Braudel. One would expect the analysis that follows to deemphasize the importance of individual policy makers and underscore instead the long-term issues of the region that demand a coordinated commitment of many years that rises above personalities and politics. To many observers, it is the mentality of the chasse gardée that has entangled France in a network of often corrupt officials in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, these networks have led to trouble for Paris when regimes have changed and new leaders have called for reform and an end to business [End Page 143] as usual. Meyrede does not address the danger of such a development should certain North African governments give way to less traditional, more reform-minded leadership. Instead, his analysis sometimes reads as if it were a press release: "The [French] Mediterranean policy can be summed up as having as its main characteristics a clear purpose, a reaffirmed European spirit, a strong French dynamic and a substantial content." He believes that this policy will shape other EU states' policies as well.

In sharp contrast is Roberto Aliboni's chapter on Italy's Mediterranean policy. It is refreshingly straightforward in political assessment, spare but informative in characterization of the central tenets of Rome's thinking, and devoid of claims that Italy alone can carry the European beacon in the Mediterranean. Aliboni notes that Italy has compensated for its diminishing aid budget and uncertain domestic political course by working to shape a multilateral consensus for building political and economic stability in North Africa. He notes interesting examples of Italian cooperation with Egypt. Missing in the analysis but important as a factor is the high regard found in Cairo for Italian civil servants in Rome as well as in a range of multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. Many North Africans trust Italy because they view Italian society as tolerant and broad-minded, qualities that have positive residual effects in government-to-government relations.

Another fine chapter is that of P. C. Ioakimidis on Greece. In sometimes hard-hitting analysis, Ioakimidis lays bare a central problem of Greek policy making: "The absence of effective, legitimized institutional structures . . . for making policy leads to the dominance of personalities in the process of making foreign policy." The unspecified reference to the talented but often flamboyant and unpredictable politicians of the Karamanlis-Mitsotakis-Papandreou era is unmistakable. The role of larger-than-life politicians, driving without the brakes because of the virtual absence of a capable and trusted bureaucracy to check them, has plagued Greece for decades. Ioakimidis notes that an often virulent press provokes public opinion, which on occasion has led to irresponsible decision making by the country's leaders and in turn to isolation in the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Foreign policy objectives," he concludes, "are set with the electorate in mind rather than the national interest." As with the other authors', Ioakimidis's analysis ends with 1996. It may well be that the technocratic but highly professional Costas Simitis is providing a break with the tradition described here and that Greece may look forward at least to the prospect of more responsible leadership.

One other chapter is particularly worthy of note. Kemal Kirisçi provides a fine analysis of Turkey's role in Central Asia and the Mediterranean. He notes that Turkey's Mediterranean policy is secondary to its policies toward Western and Central Asia, the Black Sea, and the Balkans, a perspective inadequately understood in Brussels. Turkish officials have a complex interplay of issues to consider in formulating foreign policy. [End Page 144] This very complexity of issues is all the greater reason for the EU to seek more vigorously an improved relationship with Ankara.

Other contributions to this volume are not as interesting. Some chapters, such as those on Europe and the Middle East peace process and on Portugal, are competent and informative but do not break new ground. Others, such as the lengthy chapter on tiny Malta (the longest in the book), would have benefited from editing that would have kept the author on the main path.

Inconsistency of approach is perhaps unavoidable in analyzing such a diversity of countries. But the differences in approach encountered in this book require the reader to adjust at virtually each new chapter. Some chapters are lean and analytical, obviously intended for policy makers. Others, in contrast, are written in an ungainly academic-speak, to be lapped up only by bleary-eyed political science graduate students who crave a dose of jargon on behavioristic models of the modern state before they turn in for the night.

Finally, the volume suffers to some degree because most of the contributors examine the specific policies of particular governments in the years 1990 to 1996 rather than address themes or long-term developments that will be of as much interest to a reader in 2009 as in 1999. The shelf life of the book, consequently, will be limited for those who are looking for guidance in future policy making.