Papers presented 1 to Conference I and II on Thinking Out of the Box: Devising New European Policies to Face the Arab Spring Edited by: Maria do Céu Pinto Lisboa 2014 With the support of the LLP of the European Union 2 Table of Contents Introduction 4 EU´s Policy Responses: Exploring the Progress and Shortcomings 6 The EU “Paradigmatic Policy Change” in Light of the Arab Spring: A Critical Exploration of the “Black Box” 7 Iole Fontana Assessing European Mediterranean Policy: Success Rather than Failure 18 Marie-Luise Heinrich-Merchergui, Temime Mechergui, and Gerhard Wegner Searching For A “EU Foreign Policy” during the Arab Spring – Member States’ Branding Practices in Libya in the Absence of a Common Position 41 Inez Weitershausen The EU Attempts at Increasing the Efficiency of its Democratization Efforts in the Mediterranean Region in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring 53 Anastasiia Kudlenko The Fall of Authoritarianism and the New Actors in the Arab World 62 The Arab Uprisings and its Impact on Islamist actors 63 Sandra L. Costa The Arab Uprisings through the Eyes of Young Arabs in Europe 75 Valeria Rosato and Pina Sodano Social Networking Websites and Collective Action in the Arab Spring. Case study: Bahrain 85 Seyed Hossein Zarhani The Contradictory Position of the EU towards Political Islam and the New Rapprochement to Islamist Governments 100 Sergio Castaño Riaño THE NEW SECURITY AND GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXT 110 3 Lebanon and the “Arab Spring” 111 Alessandra Frusciante Sectarianism and State Building in Lebanon and Syria 116 Bilal Hamade Civil-Military Relations in North African Countries and Their Challenges 126 Mădălin-Bogdan Răpan Turkey’s Potential Role for the EU’s Approach towards the Arab Spring: Benefits and Limitations 139 Sercan Pekel Analyzing the Domestic and International Conflict in Syria: Are There Any Useful Lessons from Political Science? 146 Jörg Michael Dostal Migration Flows and the Mediterranean Sea. The Tunisian and Libyan “Bridges” to Europe 166 Ornela Urso Arab Spring: Responding to the Changing Arab Order 179 Charting a new modernity in the new Arab world: the Islamic resurgence and the need for a Dialogue within Civilization 180 Ghoncheh Tazmini A Joint Security Culture Dialogue for a New Euro-Mediterranean Understanding 189 Erika Domenica Marino Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean Relations after the Arab Spring 200 Susana de Sousa Ferreira The European Union’s Mediterranean Policies after the Arab Spring Revolutions: Prospects and Challenges 209 Safaa Saber Khalifa 4 Introduction This issue contains a collection of papers presented at the NEPAS I and II conferences at the University of Minho, EEG 5 Faculty, Braga, Portugal. This is part of a comprehensive European project whose aim is to develop a new European Union (EU) Mediterranean policy which may accommodate the changing political situation in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. NEPAS is a project funded by the Lifeling Learning Programme (LLP) of the European Commission. The main objective of NEPAS project is to bring together a transnational and multidisciplinary research network to reflect on how the European Union (EU) should address the long-term consequences of the Arab upheavals for EU-Mediterranean (North Africa and the Middle East) relations and of achieving a high level of understanding of the needs, the requirements and the means of putting into place the newly adopted EU “Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity”. The first aim is thus to provide opportunities for academics from a range of disciplines and countries to share their research both through the conference podium, roundtable sessions and workshops. The second is to create a transnational and multidisciplinary research network to provide a framework for international information exchange in this area and to conduct collaborative research in view of the newly adopted EU agenda towards the Mediterranean. The third is the promotion and dissemination of knowledge related to the complex reality and evolution of the internal political and socio-cultural processes of the different southern Mediter- ranean countries and the reforms underway in terms of governance, social development, human rights and political transition. We mean to raise the political recognition of the relevance of a new EU-Mediterranean approach: help develop a truly Euro-Mediter- ranean culture and improve knowledge about it. The fourth is to translate participants´ knowledge into policy recommendations for EU decision-makers. The organisation also intends to stimulate interest in the fields of Euro-Mediterranean relations and to provide stimulus to students interested in pursuing research in this area. This initiative envisages offering an opportunity to students of all academic levels to meet, visit, and exchange views and experiences with other practitioners and academics. The organisation intends to put together those exchanges and knowledge by means of two major international conferences with the participation of academics, policy experts, NGOs, other civil society organisations, journalists, as well as students at various academic levels. In order to stimulate the participation of young researchers, we will organise several workshops devoted to undergraduate, MA and PhD students on the basis of international “call for papers”. These conferences and workshops enabled the publication of a final E-book of the best research papers. Two major events were held under the theme. NEPAS Conference I – “Thinking Out of the Box: Devising New European Policies to Face the Arab Spring” was held on 21st February in the University of Minho, Braga, and on the 22nd, in the Instituto dos Vinhos do Porto e do Douro (IVPD), in the city of Porto. The second NEPAS event was a Seminar on “Democratization and Political Transitions in the Arab World: Actors, Challenges, and Policy Options for the EU” in the University of Minho, 17-19th July. The conference and seminar were organized by NEPAS, a project led by the University of Minho in partnership with IsAG (Instituto di Alti Studi in Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliare), University Roma Tre and the University of Pisa. For generous financial support for the first conference, we would like to thank the Luso-American Foundation. The second conference was held with the financial contribution of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI). We owe tremendous thanks to all of those who were present. In addition to those who delivered papers, we also want to give special thanks to the project´s scientific staff and the EEG staff. Particular thanks to Mrs. Estela Vieira of the EEG International Relations Office for her enthusiastic and enduring support, who did such a masterful job organizing the conference, and to the Editor. Maria do Céu Pinto 6 EU´s Policy Responses: Exploring the Progress and Shortcomings The EU “Paradigmatic 7 Policy Change” in Light of the Arab Spring: A Critical Exploration of the “Black Box” Iole Fontana1 Abstract In the wake of the Arab Spring, the challenges that are emerging from a “changing neighborhood” have opened a new policy window for the EU and called for a policy reassessment regarding the Southern side of the Mediterranean. The Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity and the “more for more” logic tried to accomplish this by contributing to the definition of a new framework in EU-Mediterranean relations that could go beyond the inconsistencies of the past. At this stage, a fundamental question has emerged: to what extent has the EU undertaken a real “paradigmatic policy change”? The aim of this paper is to answer this question by investigating, through the lens of the policy cycle, the much-praised renewal of the EU approach in light of the Arab uprisings. Assuming that processes matter in shaping outcomes, the policy cycle is adopted to investigate the “black box” of the EU approach in all its phases – from agenda setting to implementation- in order to understand to what extent the new “item” on the EU agenda called for a real policy reassessment. Thus, the paper is divided into two parts. The first one, which considers the Arab uprisings as a watershed in the EU approach, presents a comparative analysis of all the policy phases before and after the events, assessing the elements of continuity and discontinuity with the past. Drawing on these results, the second part proposes suggestions to overcome the policy “incrementalism” that seems to emerge as a constant feature of the EU approach in the area. Introduction In the “art and craft” of politics, one of the most “artistic” aspects is to “feel the moment”, to do the right thing at the right time (Dente, 2011). The importance of timing is even stronger when seizing the moment means seizing the opportunity for change: i.e. when the normal policy environment is disrupted by a crisis or an external event and a window for reform is opened which paves the way for policy change. It is in that moment that policy actors have the opportunity to “catch the wave” and to adopt new radical decisions moving away from the “shore” of status quo. Similarly, the Tunisami2, which in 2011 triggered the popular protests across the Arab world and unsettled decades of authoritarian stability, marked a turning point for the European Union (EU) and provided the opportunity to seize the moment and radically rethink its Mediterranean policies on a brand-new background. 1 Ph.D. Student in Institutions, Politics and Policies at IMT-Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy. Comments are welcome at iole.fontana@ imtlucca.it. 2 The term Tunisami became popular when referencing the wave of revolutionary movements which surprisingly spread from Tunisia across the Arab world. 8 For more than two decades, EU policies towards Mediterranean and North African (MENA) countries made regional stability and security the cornerstones of a policy approach marked by the shadow of incrementalism which were cautious changes marginally differing from past practice and slightly detaching from a status quo that perfectly suited existing priorities (Missiroli, 2011).