Abstract
The unfolding of the Arab uprisings has shown that fostering the ability of countries affected by regime change to withstand crises is necessary for the EU and NATO to ensure the stability of the broader Southern Mediterranean region. The political transitions in Egypt and Tunisia arose from pressures to democratise. Yet, as the region’s security environment was deteriorating, EU and NATO have mostly addressed the symptoms of local instability, but largely neglected the long-term causes of insecurity in the two countries. By doing so, Euro-Atlantic diplomacy essentially enhanced state resilience at the expense of the broader societal resilience. In perspective, further political and operational coordination between NATO and the EU is needed to avoid risks of duplications and/or inconsistencies in their regional action.
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Notes
- 1.
Hereinafter simply the Alliance.
- 2.
The MD pursued three main goals: achieving better mutual understanding—the political dimension; contributing to regional security and stability—the practical dimension; and dispelling misconceptions about NATO—the public diplomacy dimension (Lesser et al. 2018).
- 3.
At the time, the EU fear of the spread of Islamic extremism in the region originated from the murder of the American Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Steven, by militiamen in Benghazi on 11 September 2012.
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Amadio Viceré, M.G., Frontini, A. (2020). Paths to Resilience: Examining EU and NATO Responses to the Tunisian and Egyptian Political Transitions. In: Cusumano, E., Hofmaier, S. (eds) Projecting Resilience Across the Mediterranean. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23641-0_13
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