Narrative‐Based Production of State Spaces for International Region Building: Europeanization and the Mediterranean

TLDR: In this paper, the authors examine Europeanization in the context of international region building in the Mediterranean and demonstrate how geopolitical narratives for Europeanization are constructed by state and European political actors, serving as an instruction for the sociopolitical mobilization of states in their search for new economic and geopolitical advantages.

Abstract: Europeanization, defined as a multidirectional process that entails changes in the rationales and structures of state action, involves the diffusion of distinctive forms of political organization and governance and the promotion of “European” solutions outside of European Union territory. I examine Europeanization in the context of international region building in the Mediterranean and demonstrate how geopolitical narratives for Europeanization are constructed by state and European political actors. These narratives serve as an instruction for the sociopolitical mobilization of states in their search for new economic and geopolitical advantages. Through a rigorous empirical analysis, I seek to meld narrative-based political geographies and state space regulation and show how international region building is a messy, problematic, and highly contested activity for parceling, regulating, and representing geopolitical space.