At its outset, the project vowed to fill a large gap in both research and demand for policy advice on the macro geopolitical trends in the Mediterranean post-Arab Spring, coverage of which had been deficient due to the mere speed of developments affecting the geopolitical balance of power in the Mediterranean and its socio-economic consequences such as fragility, migration, and conflict. The 2015-16 migration crisis was a humanitarian catastrophe of unseen magnitude which affected European citizens and continues to challege inner-European cohesion and solidarity to the benefit of Eurosceptic right-wing populist parties. By dissecting the actors and roots of Middle Eastern conflicts that have helped generate this dilemma, including by helping to inject nuance and help dissolve some of the most common misunderstandings in public debate, the project has contributed to improving the understanding of key policy elites and the broader public of the different actors and roles in those conflicts, the drivers of these conflicts, and what the transatlantic alliance can collaboratively do to reduce the potential of fragility spilling over from the Middle East to Europe, a question at the heart of current political debates not only on the future of the Middle East, but on the survival of the European Union itself.
The transatlantic dimension of the projects’ policy advisory elements was particularly relevant throughout the reporting period, which coincided with a number of political landslide developments in the transatlantic relationship with regard to the Middle East, including the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Joint and Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from Iran, move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the affair around the murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the announcement of a withdrawal of US troops from Syria, all of which were directly addressed by the fellow in her publications, policy briefings, speaking and writing contributions. The impact and relevance of the project was further illustrated by the fact that Mr Jamal Khashoggi was hosted by the fellow as the main speaker of one of the policy briefings and public conferences organized under the fellowship, in what should be his last visit to Brussels and the European Institutions before his untimely murder three months later.
here the researcher also presents a list of publications that were not anticipated in the DoA, but have been requested of her during the project:
• Journal article “Identity politics in the Levant”, Turkish Journal of International Relations (M12, publication forthcoming);
• Book chapter “Identity politics and regional order”, in: Mustapha Aydin (ed): Regional Order in the Levant, Istanbul: Kadir Has University, 2018 (M24);
• Dinner debate at the margins of 2017 Brussels Forum: “Security implications of proxy warfare in Libya” (M8);
• Paper: “Cheap Havoc: Cyber-Geopolitics in the Middle East” (M15);
• Paper: “Cybered Conflict in the Middle East”, co-authored by Lior Tabansky (M17);
• Public conference: Cyber-Geopolitics in the Middle East (M15).
• Paper “Power Beyond the State: Geopolitical Non-State Actors in the Middle East and North Africa”, published by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, co-authored with Benedetta Berti, Mohamed Eljarh and Cornelius Adebahr (M15);
• Book chapter: “State and Non-State Alliances in the Middle East”, in: Lorenzo Kamel (ed.): The Frailty of Authority: Borders, Non-state Actors and Power Vacuums in a Changing Middle East, Rome: Italian Institute of International Affairs, 2017 (M13).
• Policy study: “What future for the EU-Tunisia Partnership?”, co-authored with Youssef Cherif, published by the Instituto Europeo del Mediterraneo (IEMED) (M20);
• Article: “Revisiting Europe’s Comparative Advantage in the Mediterranean”, Barcelona: IEMED Mediterranean Yearbook, 2018 (M21);
• Public parliamentary testimony before the European Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, live-streamed online (M15)
