Publication

This paper, which is the first of three, analyzes how the European Community (EC) initially constructed – in a rambling, haphazard way – the idea of the “Mediterranean” as a neighboring space in the 1970s and 1980s, and how it then mapped out the region accordingly. The text concludes that the first phase of the concept’s development was 1) mainly triggered by the EC’s economic interests and necessitated by its recurring enlargement processes, and 2) tainted by the Community’s failed attempts to cooperate politically with Mediterranean countries, despite its self-perception as the most powerful actor capable of constructing the Mediterranean as a zone of economic prosperity.