Alliance or Clash of Civilizations?

Heiberg, Morten

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_8

Morten Heiberg⁴

Part of the book series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World ((SCCCW))

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Abstract

This chapter disentangles the mystery surrounding the murder of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in 2005. It is also within this context of political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East that the book discusses the much-debated Spanish-UN initiative “Alliance of Civilizations,” which was coined as “naïve” by its critics, yet nevertheless seen by the Zapatero government as crucial to preventing terrorism. Whereas the government was essentially focused on the long-term significance of the UN alliance to Spanish domestic security, some influential Spanish foreign policy advisors rather conceived the Alliance within the broader context of an evolving multi-polarity and pluralism in the international environment which would inevitably change the global relationship of force to the detriment of US hegemony.

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Notes

1.
Cf. Alissa J. Rubin and Jason Horowitz, “European Leaders Look to Africa to Stem Migration,” New York Times, August 28, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/world/europe/africa-migrants-europe.html.
2.
Fernández-Molina, Moroccan Foreign Policy Under Mohammed VI, 181.
3.
Ibid., 123.
4.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
5.
31,681 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands alone. Cf. “Inmigración irregular. Balance 2015 Lucha contra la inmigración regular,” Spanish Ministry of the Interior, 2015. http://www.interior.gob.es/documents/10180/3066430/Balance+2015+de+la+lucha+contra+la+inmigraci%C3%B3n+irregular.pdf/d67e7d4b-1cb9-4b1d-94a0-9a9ca1028f3d.
6.
Cembrero, Vecinos alejados, 164.
7.
Ibid., 159.
8.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Moratinos Files: Private information given to the author.
11.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
12.
This story was also recently leaked to the press. Cf. “El CNI pagó a propietarios de cayucos para que dejaran de transportar inmigrantes a Canarias en 2006,” El Diario, July 14, 2018. https://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/politica/CNI-cayucos-transportar-inmigrantes-Canarias_0_792670825.html.
13.
Cf. “Inmigración irregular. Balance 2015.”
14.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Fernández de la Vega.
15.
Miguel Angel Moratinos, “An Ethical and Political Commitment to Africa,” article published by the Real Instituto El Cano, December 2005. http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/wcm/connect/0970a9804f0187debe02fe3170baead1/Moratinos874.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=0970a9804f0187debe02fe3170baead1.
16.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
17.
“¿Bienvenido Mr Moratinos?,” La Vanguardia, October 15, 2006. Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
18.
Moratinos, “An Ethical and Political Commitment to Africa.”
19.
“Moratinos anuncia una nueva etapa histórica relaciones España y África Occidental,” EFE, September 21, 2007.
20.
“Moratinos reparte millones en África para repatriar a los ‘sin papeles’,” La Razón, October 10, 2006.
21.
The figures of the Spanish Official Development Aid (ODA) are reproduced in Cristina Barrios Fernández, “Spain and Sub-Saharan Africa. Toward a Strategic Approach,” in Contemporary Spanish Foreign Policy, ed. David García Cantalapiedra and Ramón Pacheco Pardo (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014), 153.
22.
“España donará 55 milliones a los países de África emisores de emigrantes,” El País, January 27, 2008.
23.
“Moratinos inicia su gira con el estreno de la Embajada en Mali,” El Mundo, January 27, 2008.
24.
“España y Senegal dan los primeros pasos para repatriar a 134 menores inmigrantes acogidos en Canarias,” Canarias, February 14, 2008.
25.
“Moratinos viaja a Marruecos para abordar con el Gobierno las últimas avalanchas de inmigrantes,” El País, October 10, 2010. See https://elpais.com/elpais/2005/10/10/actualidad/1128932220_850215.html.
26.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
27.
Cf. Fernández-Molina, Moroccan Foreign Policy, 124.
28.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
29.
Ibid.
30.
David Mofette, Governing Irregular Migration. Bordering Culture, Labour, and Security in Spain (Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2018), 5–7, 109–110.
31.
Ruth Gursch-Adam and Lívia Benková, “The Impact of Demographic Developments in Africa and Europe,” European View, vol. 15, issue 2 (December 2016). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12290-016-0425-3.
32.
“Sánchez y Merkel pactan ayuda prioritaria para Marruecos,” El Periódico, August 12, 2018. See https://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20180811/sanchez-merkel-inmigracion-marruecos-6985229.
33.
Cf. Lisa Watanabe, “Challenges in Libya Complicate EU Measures to Stem Migration,” IPI Global Observatory, October 20, 2017. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2017/10/challenges-libya-complicate-eu-measures-migration/.
34.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
35.
Cf. “The Prosecutor v. Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi & Assad Hassan Sabra, 12 July 2016.” The consolidated amended indictment can be downloaded from https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/stl-11-01/main/indictments-6/5321-f2640.
36.
“Hariri Threatened by Syria Head,” BBC News, December 30, 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4570652.stm.
37.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
38.
Ibid.
39.
Ibid.
40.
“The Prosecutor v. Salim Jamil Ayyash.”
41.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
42.
Cf. Vaquer I Fanes, “Spain in the Mediterranean,” 140.
43.
I here refer to a forthcoming French book of interviews with Moratinos.
44.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Ibid.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Moratinos Files: Private information given to the author.
49.
“Hamas and Israel Exchange Prisoners,” Al-Jazeera.com, October 18, 2011. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/10/20111017221258366393.html.
50.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Cf. Avi Isacharoff, “Revealed: Olmert’s 2008 Peace Offer to the Palestinians,” The Jerusalem Post, May 24, 2013. https://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Details-of-Olmerts-peace-offer-to-Palestinians-exposed-314261.
53.
Rice, No Higher Honor, 723. Moratinos agrees with Rice’s version, but cannot confirm Jerusalem Post’s version with regard to the Temple of the Mount.
54.
Isacharoff, “Revealed: Olmert’s 2008 Peace Offer to the Palestinians.”
55.
Cf. Rice, No Higher Honor, 723.
56.
Avi Isacharoff, “Revealed: Olmert’s 2008 Peace Offer to the Palestinians,” The Jerusalem Post, May 24, 2013. See http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Details-of-Olmerts-peace-offer-to-Palestinians-exposed-314261.
57.
Rice, No Higher Honor, 724.
58.
“He Has No Standing in Israel,” she told Rice. Cf. Rice, No Higher Honor, 723.
59.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
60.
PSOE, “Merecemos una España mejor,” 21–24.
61.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
62.
Moratinos Files: Private information.
63.
Anuario Internacional CIDOB, multiple entries for 2004 and 2005.
64.
As stated by the minister: “Y por último, yo creo, la novedad y, sobre todo, la exigencia participativa delos ciudadanos españoles hoy de ocuparse y preocuparse de la política exterior viene dada porque tenemos enfrente de nosotros en este comenzar del siglo XXI retos que no podemos renunciar a resolverlos. Y principalmente, el prioritario de todos ellos, es esa lucha internacional contra el terrorismo. Sean, por lo tanto, mis palabras y mi reconocimiento a la hora de abordar este compromiso de lucha del terrorismo internacional con todas aquellas víctimas, nacionales y no nacionales, que sufrieron el brutal atentado del 11 de marzo.” Cit. in “Palabras en su toma de posesión, Palacio de Santa Cruz,” 19 de abril de 2004, in Discursos y declaraciones del ministro de Asuntos Exteriores y de cooperación D. Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé (Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación, Oficina de Informacion Diplomatica, 2005).
65.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
66.
Cf. Joseph Nye, “Get Smart. Combining Hard and Soft Power,” Foreign Affairs, July–August 2009. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2009-07-01/get-smart.
67.
Ibid.
68.
“Moratinos dice que si no se resuelve el conflicto del Sahara viviremos ‘situaciones como el 11-M’,” Libertad Digital, July 15, 2004. http://www.libertaddigital.com/mundo/moratinos-dice-que-si-no-se-resuelve-el-conflicto-del-sahara-viviremos-situaciones-como-el-11-m-1276227945/.
69.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
70.
Ibid.
71.
Ought to be “which.”
72.
“Statement by the President of the Government of Spain. HE Mr. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero,” United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 21, 2004. http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/59/statements/spaeng040921.pdf.
73.
Ibid.
74.
Ibid.
75.
Ibid.
76.
Máximo Cajal, Ceuta, Melilla, Olivenza y Gibraltar: ¿dónde acaba España? (Madrid: Siglo XXI de España, 2003).
77.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
78.
Ibid.
79.
Máximo Cajal, La Alianza de Civilizaciones de las Naciones Unidas: una mirada al futuro (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2011), 49, 55.
80.
Cf. “Alianza de Civilizaciones,” the official Spanish presentation of the initiative on exteriores.gob.es. http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/es/PoliticaExteriorCooperacion/NacionesUnidas/Paginas/AlianzaCivilizaciones.aspx.
81.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
82.
A timeline of the crisis can be found in the Danish newspaper Berlingske, January 7, 2015. https://www.b.dk/globalt/tidslinje-saadan-forloeb-muhammed-krisen.
83.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Per Stig Møller.
84.
Ibid.
85.
“El ministro y Rice coinciden en apoyar al grupo ‘Súmate’, de oposición al régimen de Chávez,” ABC, February 16, 2006.
86.
Miguel Ángel Moratinos and Sergey Lavrov, “Más allá de la caricatura,” published among other newspapers in El Mundo, February 10, 2010.
87.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Per Stig Møller. See also Per Stig Møller, Udenrigsminister i krig og fred (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2006), 371–372.
88.
“Alliance of Civilizations Forum Ends with Agreements to Bridge Differences Between Cultures,” AP, January 16, 2008.
89.
“Moratinos dice que el Gobierno está ‘muy satisfecho’ con la participación y los resultados del Foro,” AP, January 16, 2008.
90.
Ibid.
91.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.

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Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Morten Heiberg

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Heiberg, M. (2019). Alliance or Clash of Civilizations?. In: Spain and the Wider World since 2000. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_8
Published: 05 October 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27342-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27343-9
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