This site supports the progresses of the feasibility project "Towards a security community for the Mediterranean" aimed at verifying the feasibility of a textbook (reader) on the topic.
This area is divided in several parts:
- original description [pdf, 31 KB] of the project, as it was presented to the Commission under budget line A-3022.
- Food for thought, a bibliography of reference (texts which were important in the making of the project, and further useful readings)
- Literature, proposed original literature to be introduced in the reader, which is intended to be mainly a collection of primary texts with introductory essays.
- Position paper: Lorenza Sebesta's position paper to be discussed in the Bologna seminar of July
- Calendar: Events and meetings of the project
- Team: Members of the project
The sections of the site will be updated permanently during the project that, due to financial constraints, has to be developed from October 2003 to the end of July 2004.
Analytical tools
In order to begin the discussion around the reader's table of contents and the creation of a network of contributors, we suggest conceptual couples grouped in four main areas.
These couples are intended
- to help verify differences and similarities in the past;
- to build up a common view for the future;
- to provide the readers with materials in order to analyse and promote a viable security for the Mediterranean
Here is a first suggested list :
Disorder is a fundamental component of international life. Fear and danger necessarily grow from this disorder. |
Disorder is a fundamental component of international life. From disorder may grow fear and danger, but also opportunities of cooperation. |
| Domestic analogy: the international arena corresponds to a pre-contractual state of nature. | Domestic analogy: the international arena corresponds to a pre-contractual state of nature. |
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Nothing exists in the international realm to prevent war. War is a constant possibility. | Nothing exists in the international realm to prevent war, but war is only an extreme case of international intercourses. |
Individuals are functions of statuality's needs. |
Statuality is a function of citizens' needs. |
Territorial integrity of the state and protection of the values expressed by the community living within its borders. |
Personal integrity and protection of every human being's "borders" of dignity and respect. |
The interplay of geopolitical realities embodied in the states. They are given facts, subject to change (geographical position, demography, energetic sources, raw materials) but in any case measurable in a quantitative terms. |
Ever changing challenges coming from the internal and international realm (environmental issues, ethnic tensions, minorities, immigration, financial instability) |
Mastering change. |
Coping with change. |
The use of force in the international arena. |
The juridification of international space through norms, rules, institutions, and loyalties. Coertion can be centralized or decentralized (Kelsen). |
| Temporary equilibria between states based on given patterns of relationship such as hegemony and the balance of power, etc | Viability of social,economic and technological constellations (whether formalized or unformal, regimes) based on an efficient and fair distribution of wealth and justice for all men and women (international society as a civitas maxima). |
Alliances as the most effective way to cope with fear and desorder. |
Regionalization intended as a process towards intergovernamental/supranational cooperation to cope with the problems of wealth and justice or towards functional/ruling cooperation to cope with technological progresses. |
In the internal realm, absolute sovereignty increases the possibility to wage an efficient use of force and, therefore, increases the chances of survival of its community into the international arena (Hobbes) |
In the internal realm, the de-absolutization of sovereignty is the best guarantee for the security of the citizen - juridification, divisions of power, spacial articulation (federalism), democratization (Kant, Locke) |
The discourses on war (the culture of war) |
The discourse on peace (the culture of peace and internationalism) |
God as the source of legitimation for the use of force |
Legality and rationality as the source of legitimation for the use of force. However, war is considered to be unthinkable within a security system recognized as legitimate by its members. |
National interest, as defined by the leaderships and the strongest interest groups within a given state or by others, within a colonial or hegemonic paradigm. |
Shared interests collectively defined. |
Order is the value to be pursued. | Plurality (or the right to disagree) is the value to be pursued |
| Instrumental discourse as a tool to impose its own policy. | Dialogic discourse to create a framework for common deliberation. |