Mediterranean Politics 

About: Mediterranean Politics is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & European union. It has an ISSN identifier of 1362-9395. Over the lifetime, 899 publications have been published receiving 11400 citations.

Policing Migration in the Mediterranean

Abstract: Over recent years, there has been growing concern in European countries with irregular migration and other – supposedly related – transnational challenges from across the Mediterranean, which have come to be seen both as a security risk as well as a humanitarian challenge. In response, European countries have been stepping up their efforts to police their Mediterranean borders. This has involved both an increasing militarization of migration control in the Mediterranean, in the sense of the deployment of semi-military and military forces and hardware in the prevention of migration by sea, and an intensification of law enforcement co-operation between the countries north and south of the Mediterranean. This article discusses the evolution of these policing activities in and across the Mediterranean, as well as some of its perverse side effects, such as the growing involvement of human smugglers, and the diversion of the migratory flows towards other, usually further and more dangerous, routes across the Me...

Explaining the (Non-)Encampment of Syrian Refugees: Security, Class and the Labour Market in Lebanon and Jordan

Abstract: In Lebanon and Jordan the (non-)encampment of Syrian refugees is serving states’ labour market goals. The Lebanese economy ‘requires’ large numbers of non-encamped low-wage Syrian workers, but the Jordanian regime assists its Transjordanian support base by restricting poor Syrians’ access to the labour market through encampment. While acknowledging the importance of both states’ differing historical experiences hosting refugees, and the security and budgetary motivations for policies of (non-)encampment, this article uses a critical political economy analysis of economic and labour market statistics to dislodge the centrality of the security discourses that increasingly inform discussions of refugee populations and the policies directed towards them. It demonstrates that the camp is not only a space of humanitarianism or a fertile ground for armed militancy, but a tool through which states spatially segregate those refugees, of certain socio-economic classes, whom they deem surplus to labour market requir...

The Arab Uprisings in Theoretical Perspective: An Introduction

Abstract: The so-called ‘Arab Awakening’ is a momentous event that surprised both scholars and policy makers. For over a decade the paradigm of authoritarian resilience had dominated studies of the Arab world, almost entirely replacing the democratization paradigm that had been prominent throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This inter-paradigm debate on how best to explain and interpret the politics of the Arab world now calls for a review, in light of the Arab uprisings. The contributions to this themed issue offer a first attempt at highlighting some of the theoretical issues that should inform our rethinking of this debate thus far. Overall the issue thus aims at making a theoretical contribution by providing a deeper insight into the socio-economic–political structures and the new actors that led to the uprisings in the Arab world. It also explores and considers the opportunities and constraints that these structures offer for sharpening our theoretical tools – which may in turn lead us to use the paradigms and mode...

AKP Reform Fatigue in Turkey: What’s happened to the EU process?

Abstract: Whereas the AKP government campaigned in favour of Turkish membership in the European Union and upon taking office passed an impressive battery of EU-demanded democratic reform measures, after the government was formally given a date to open accession talks it evidenced a surprising retreat from this political agenda. This article examines three key factors that account for the flagging fervour of the AKP government: modalities of EU behaviour toward Turkey, election politics, and Kemalist institutional resistance to AKP reform efforts. Notwithstanding these checks, the AKP is unlikely to deviate far from its commitment to an EU pro-reform agenda, although it will continue to face critical transformational challenges.

Popular Mobilization in Syria: Opportunity and Threat, and the Social Networks of the Early Risers

Abstract: This paper explores the dynamics and underlying conditions of the first few months of the uprising in Syria, from mid-March 2011 until the summer of that year. Together with the contributions from Dalmasso and Kandil, it exploits the opportunity created by the Arab uprisings to shed new light on patterns of social mobilization and collective action that research programmes focusing on authoritarian resilience had tended to overlook. Specifically, it presents an analysis that critically and loosely borrows from, communicates with and hopes to make a modest contribution to social movement theory (SMT). While threat and opportunity are necessary elements for popular mobilization, they are not sufficient. Both ‘threat’ and ‘opportunity’ therefore need to be contextualized within the specific social and political environment, real or perceived, of the ‘early risers’ in Syria, in order to appreciate their local significance. The article further argues that protestors, when under threat and faced with the opport...