Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean: Navigating Complexity, Mitigating Conflict(s) and Fishing for Compromise

The European Union (EU) and its member states face daunting challenges in their near abroad, placing Europe in new and uncharted waters with regards to allies, partners and adversaries alike. Among these challenges, the Eastern Mediterranean stands out as a key testing ground for EU action. The vacuum left by the U.S.’s relative retrenchment has been filled by the increasingly proactive policies of other actors, including European states, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Russia and even the Arab Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, transforming the Eastern Mediterranean – and arguably the Mediterranean more broadly – into a significant geopolitical hotspot of overlapping claims for regional and international primacy. [...]