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Conference
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Governing
Stability Across the Mediterranean Sea:
a Transatlantic Perspective |
Sponsored
by
the NATO Office of Information and Press
and the German Marshall Fund of the United States
21-23
March 2002
Residenza
di Ripetta
Via di Ripetta, 231 - Rome |
The events of 2001, in particular the 11 September attack
and its aftermath, while demanding short-term responses, have
also revealed the need to respond to terrorism and violence
in the longer term. Such a longer-term response has to be
provided in terms of governance, i.e. cooperation and partnership.
The Western countries have already provided responses of this
kind in the nineties. However, the question of governing instability
has now become especially urgent.
The government of instability is a problem that involves the
huge North African, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian areas.
In the Mediterranean, though, the question looks particularly
relevant because of the presence in the area of important
Western allies, such as Egypt, Turkey and Israel, and significant
schemes for security cooperation, such as the NATO Mediterranean
Dialogue and the Euro-Med Partnership, in addition to the
Mediterranean’s proximity to Western and European interests
and resources.
The challenge is that these schemes of security cooperation
need to be reinforced, improved and updated. On the one hand,
efforts must be stepped up to reach shared views on the factors
and trends that shape ongoing developments. On the other hand,
it is essential that respective security concepts be broadened,
common grounds, policy responses and a possible division of
labour worked out. In general, stronger elements of partnership
should be included.
In this perspective, two factors are equally relevant to the
aim of developing partnership across the Mediterranean Sea:
(a) increasing confidence between Western countries and countries
beyond the Mediterranean; (b) strengthening transatlantic
cohesion by establishing a suitable division of labor among
allies. The two tasks look equally important and are, in any
case, bound to interact with one another.
These are the themes that the conference organised by the
Italian International Affairs Institute (IAI) in Rome addressed. |
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