Abstract
The dynamics of politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have attracted much attention from scholars, practitioners, the media and policy leaders over the past two decades, in particular since the events of the Arab Spring in 2011. The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and upheavals that shook the entire Arab region, creating fertile ground for democratic change and promising finally to topple the long-established authoritarian regimes. Although the outcomes have varied across different states in the MENA region, what has become apparent is that the Arab world has been experiencing profound turbulence. Seven years after the first protest in Tunisia, international society saw little remaining hope and the spring had turned into a very heavy winter of economic stagnation and political violence. Such developments in MENA have dragged Syria, Libya and Yemen into ongoing civil wars while causing unrest in Egypt, Iraq and Bahrain, and destabilizing Arab governments from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.
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Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey, Cyprus and Malta. (After the EU enlargement in 2004 to include Cyprus and Malta, the number of Mediterranean partners was reduced to ten.)
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“Deep democracy” includes: “Free and fair elections; freedom of association, expression and assembly and a free press and media; the rule of law administered by an independent judiciary and right to a fair trial; fighting against corruption; security and law enforcement sector reform (including the police) and the establishment of democratic control over armed and security forces.” ‘Remarks by the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton at the Senior Officials’ Meeting on Egypt and Tunisa. This can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/04/egypt-tunisia-eu-deepdemocracy
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Özçelik, A.O. (2019). A Litmus Test for Europe: EU Mediterranean Politics After the Arab Spring. In: Çakmak, C., Özçelik, A.O. (eds) The World Community and the Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60985-0_3
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