| Review of: | The Convergence of Civilizations: Constructing a Mediterranean Region edited by E. Adler, F. Bicchi, B. Crawford, R. Del Sarto |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Sharon Pardo |
| Reviewed in: | Journal of Common Market Studies |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 45, Issue 2, Pages 515-533 |
Book Reviews
Focusing on the construction of regions in world politics,
This brilliantly edited volume brings together an impressive list of scholars who take the reader through a journey from Brussels to the heart of the Southern Mediterranean.
Much credit for this successful volume should go to the editors, who have succeeded in building a coherent whole out of the individual chapters. The introductory chapter by Emanuel Adler and Beverly Crawford suggests a fine theoretical framework for studying region-building as a practice of regional governance. The theoretical framework is strengthened by a chapter by Etel Solingen and Saba Şenses Ozyurt, using Turkey as a case study that analyses the institutional theory that underlies the Barcelona Process, followed by a chapter by Stephen Calleya on sub-regionalism as a tool of region-building within the Barcelona Process. Richard Gillespie then discusses the record of the EU's democracy promotion in North Africa. Four more chapters deal with instruments and practices of region-building in the Mediterranean: Federica Bicchi (on the European origins of Euro-Mediterranean practices), Said Haddadi (on political securitization and democratization in the Maghreb) and Alfred Tovias (on economic liberalism). Joel Peters brings an interesting approach in his chapter on Arab-Israeli relations and the Barcelona Process by arguing that conflict of interests among the Barcelona partners emerged as soon as the Middle East multilateral peace talks moved to the stage of implementation. As Peters shows, given the primacy of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the failed peace-making process spilled over to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
The last section is dedicated to culture and identities: Fulvio Attinà (on regional security and the security culture divide), Metin Heper (on the formation of Turkey's identity). In this section, the chapter by Raffaella A. del Sarto is particularly noteworthy and thought-provoking. Del Sarto focuses on the region-building efforts on Israel's identity. Del Sarto argues that domestic factors related to political identity may be decisive for the success of the EU's normative power in the context of region-building. A critical concluding chapter is offered by Kalipso Nicolaïdis and Dimitry Nicolaïdis.
In the end, this volume provides an enlightening analysis of the region-building process of the Mediterranean area and a visionary sense of what will become of the Barcelona Process. Both policy-makers and scholars will find in this volume a radical new contribution to the study of regional security and peace and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. In many ways,