Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East

Abstract

In her lecture, Prof. Raffaella A. Del Sarto will discuss her latest book Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2021). By adopting a borderlands prism, the book proposes a profound rethink of the complex relationship between Europe—defined here as the European Union and its members—and the states of the Mediterranean Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Focusing on trade relations on the one hand, and the cooperation on migration, borders, and security on the other, the book revisits the historical origins of the relationship, the interests underwriting European policies, and the complex dynamics marking the interaction between the two sides over a twenty-year period (1995-2015).

It shows that within a system of asymmetric economic relations from which Europe and MENA elites benefit the most, single MENA governments have been co-opted into the management of border and migration control, thus acting as Europe's gatekeepers. Combined with specific policy choices of MENA governments, European policies have in fact contributed to rising socio-economic inequalities and the strengthening of authoritarian rule in Europe’s ‘southern neighbourhood’, with Europe tacitly tolerating serious human rights violations at its fringes.

Speaker

• Raffella del Sarto - John Hopkins University - SAIS Europe

Bio

Raffaella A. Del Sarto is Academic Director, Master of Arts in International Affairs, and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS Europe campus. She is interested in the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa—particularly in relation to Europe, the domestic-foreign policy nexus, questions of borders, power and interdependence, the development of the regional order in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel’s foreign and domestic policies.

She is the author of Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2021); Israel under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli Neo-Revisionist Right (Georgetown University Press, 2017); Contested State Identities and Regional Security in the Euro-Mediterranean Area (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and the editor of Fragmented Borders, Interdependence and External Relations: The Israel-Palestine-European Union Triangle (Palgrave Macmillan 2015)