Deconstructing the EU's Discourse on the Mediterranean

This paper outlines the conceptual and methodological guidelines for research in MEDRESET Work Package 1 (WP1). It also aims to provide some shared guidelines for Work Package 2. The theoretical approach to be used in our research is critical constructivism with a slight bend towards poststructuralism which also makes it compatible with the methodology that we will be using, notably critical discourse analysis. Our task is to deconstruct the EU’s discourse on the Mediterranean to reveal how it constructs the region (as conflictual, threatening, etc.) and its own identity (as peaceful, post-modern, etc.) in a specific way and designs and legitimizes its policies through such rhetoric. We will fulfil this task by inquiring into the co-constitutive relationship between EU discourse and its practices. This paper provides the detailed framework for such analysis, encouraging our partners to inquire into the argument that the EU pursues a securitized, depoliticizing and technocratic approach towards the Mediterranean.