The Mediterranean in Post-1945 Arab Politics

This chapter reviews the main approaches of Arab states and political movements to security and development in the Mediterranean since decolonisation. Organised chronologically, the study highlights the main elements of both contention and cooperation among Arab and European polities and shows the multiplicity of understandings and practices that have influ- enced Arab forces in different periods. First, the chapter covers the decade following World War II, when Arab Mediterranean states gained independence from European empires. It then focuses on the period of mass politics, pan-Arabism and state-led development aims that recast Euro-Arab relations by distancing Arab states from Western European politics while opening up to socialist states in Europe. However, as economic bonds still endured despite Arab nationalisation, and pan-Arabism started to wane in the early 1970s, intra-Arab and Euro-Arab relations shifted towards inter-governmental cooperation. Next, the study analyses the arrival of political and economic neoliberalism in the region in the mid-1980s and evaluates how it informed Euro-Arab relations. Finally, it examines how Arab states in- tegrated and contested liberal globalisation in the 1990s and the contradictions stemming from securitisation of the Mediterranean due to the European priorities to fight Islamist threats and stop migration in the 21st century.