Regional community building and the transformation of international relations: The case of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership

This article examines whether there exists a European approach to international relations that makes a difference to the global prospects for political co-operation between western liberal democracies and other regional and cultural groupings. More precisely, it investigates whether, and how, the European Union through its Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) can create a new type of regional community that increases security and reduces politico-cultural tensions around the Mediterranean. In particular, the article addresses the issue of how far such a ‘partnership’ constitutes a new approach to community building that shuns old realist approaches to international relations but creates instead in the Mediterranean region a rationale for co-operation grounded in the social constructivist notion of a ‘convergence of civilizations’.