Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035140
A. Stahl
ABSTRACT For years, the European Union (EU) has sought to portray itself as a normative ‘force for good’ in the world. With the rise of China, the international environment is changing and elements of rivalry are sharpening. As a response, the EU’s leadership has promised to make the EU a geopolitical actor that would be more assertive in pursuing its own strategic interests. Taking the example of China’s expanding footprint in North Africa, this article examines the EU’s changing role in the region. By applying role theory and interactionism to the analysis, the article offers a better understanding of the European response to China’s strategic emergence in North Africa and the EU’s gradual transformation from a normative power into geopolitical actor in the region.
{"title":"China’s expanding footprint in North Africa and the European Union’s geopolitical awakening","authors":"A. Stahl","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035140","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For years, the European Union (EU) has sought to portray itself as a normative ‘force for good’ in the world. With the rise of China, the international environment is changing and elements of rivalry are sharpening. As a response, the EU’s leadership has promised to make the EU a geopolitical actor that would be more assertive in pursuing its own strategic interests. Taking the example of China’s expanding footprint in North Africa, this article examines the EU’s changing role in the region. By applying role theory and interactionism to the analysis, the article offers a better understanding of the European response to China’s strategic emergence in North Africa and the EU’s gradual transformation from a normative power into geopolitical actor in the region.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47603630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035125
Emilie Tran, Y. Zoubir
This special issue on China in the Mediterranean offers a comparative, theoretical perspective, and an up-to-date empirical analysis of China’s increased presence on both shores of the Mediterranean, ranging from China’s infrastructure diplo-macy in North Africa to Sino-Southern Mediterranean and Sino-European relations. The Issue is quite timely as tensions are brewing in the Mediterranean, wherein a complex triangular competitive relationship has been developing due, partly, to China’s inroads into the Southern and Northern shores. Beijing’s increased presence and relative influence have impacted the perceptions of France especially, the former colonial power, and global competitors, such as Russia, Turkey, Israel
{"title":"INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE China in the Mediterranean: An Arena of Strategic Competition?","authors":"Emilie Tran, Y. Zoubir","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035125","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue on China in the Mediterranean offers a comparative, theoretical perspective, and an up-to-date empirical analysis of China’s increased presence on both shores of the Mediterranean, ranging from China’s infrastructure diplo-macy in North Africa to Sino-Southern Mediterranean and Sino-European relations. The Issue is quite timely as tensions are brewing in the Mediterranean, wherein a complex triangular competitive relationship has been developing due, partly, to China’s inroads into the Southern and Northern shores. Beijing’s increased presence and relative influence have impacted the perceptions of France especially, the former colonial power, and global competitors, such as Russia, Turkey, Israel","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41789651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035139
Degang Sun, Ruike Xu
ABSTRACT Despite the limitations of its bilateral trade volume and security cooperation with China, Egypt was the first Middle Eastern and Arab country that established a strategic partnership with China in 1999 and the second to build a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014. This article employs role theory to unpack this seeming paradox, and argues that it is largely because of the compatibility of their national role conceptions that China and Egypt have managed to broaden and deepen their cooperation in the Xi-Sisi era. A thorough examination of the two countries’ official documents and a variety of other related literature reveals that China and Egypt are determined to build a comprehensive and complementary partnership with the strategic docking of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Egypt’s ‘Vision 2030’ plan. As pivotal states in Asia and the Middle East respectively, China and Egypt aim to reshape the global power structure through the pursuit of multipolarity and solidarity of rising powers.
{"title":"China and Egypt’s comprehensive strategic partnership in the Xi-sisi era: a ‘role theory’ prism","authors":"Degang Sun, Ruike Xu","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035139","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite the limitations of its bilateral trade volume and security cooperation with China, Egypt was the first Middle Eastern and Arab country that established a strategic partnership with China in 1999 and the second to build a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014. This article employs role theory to unpack this seeming paradox, and argues that it is largely because of the compatibility of their national role conceptions that China and Egypt have managed to broaden and deepen their cooperation in the Xi-Sisi era. A thorough examination of the two countries’ official documents and a variety of other related literature reveals that China and Egypt are determined to build a comprehensive and complementary partnership with the strategic docking of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Egypt’s ‘Vision 2030’ plan. As pivotal states in Asia and the Middle East respectively, China and Egypt aim to reshape the global power structure through the pursuit of multipolarity and solidarity of rising powers.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44119630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035138
Emilie Tran
ABSTRACT Among the Mediterranean states, France has arguably the most complex bilateral relationship with China: their intense economic exchange and all-encompassing cooperation are not only the longest and eventful, but they are also marred with enduring and mounting concerns. Intersecting two distinct concepts from the international relations’ literature, i.e., role theory and trust, this article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions. It examines sixty years of France-China interaction mechanisms, looking at France’s role conception, expectations, performance and adaptation. On the theoretical front, it proposes to characterize the concurrent cooperation and competition between France and China as coopetition, thus adding a new role enactment, that of coopetitor, to the existing conceptions of national roles.
{"title":"Role dynamics and trust in France-China coopetition","authors":"Emilie Tran","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035138","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Among the Mediterranean states, France has arguably the most complex bilateral relationship with China: their intense economic exchange and all-encompassing cooperation are not only the longest and eventful, but they are also marred with enduring and mounting concerns. Intersecting two distinct concepts from the international relations’ literature, i.e., role theory and trust, this article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions. It examines sixty years of France-China interaction mechanisms, looking at France’s role conception, expectations, performance and adaptation. On the theoretical front, it proposes to characterize the concurrent cooperation and competition between France and China as coopetition, thus adding a new role enactment, that of coopetitor, to the existing conceptions of national roles.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48251901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035135
Chuchu Zhang, C. Xiao
ABSTRACT As Beijing is actively investing in and constructing infrastructure overseas within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), numerous rumours and misconceptions have arisen about the changes China can and will bring through its infrastructure diplomacy. By way of an analysis of Chinese infrastructure projects and diplomatic activities in the Mediterranean, examining government documents, companies’ briefings and media reports, we found that China’s infrastructure diplomacy goals are two-fold: 1. to promote infrastructure cooperation and economic ties overseas through political means. 2. to enhance political trust between China and other countries via collaboration in infrastructure development. Despite the preliminary achievements, both China’s economic gains and political influence through infrastructure diplomacy, including in the Mediterranean Region, remain limited. This derives from several factors, the most important of which being China’s predicament in its role-taking, which makes its foreign policies such as the infrastructure diplomacy subject to shifts and open to interpretation.
{"title":"China’s infrastructure diplomacy in the Mediterranean region under the Belt And Road Initiative: Challenges ahead?","authors":"Chuchu Zhang, C. Xiao","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035135","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As Beijing is actively investing in and constructing infrastructure overseas within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), numerous rumours and misconceptions have arisen about the changes China can and will bring through its infrastructure diplomacy. By way of an analysis of Chinese infrastructure projects and diplomatic activities in the Mediterranean, examining government documents, companies’ briefings and media reports, we found that China’s infrastructure diplomacy goals are two-fold: 1. to promote infrastructure cooperation and economic ties overseas through political means. 2. to enhance political trust between China and other countries via collaboration in infrastructure development. Despite the preliminary achievements, both China’s economic gains and political influence through infrastructure diplomacy, including in the Mediterranean Region, remain limited. This derives from several factors, the most important of which being China’s predicament in its role-taking, which makes its foreign policies such as the infrastructure diplomacy subject to shifts and open to interpretation.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48891025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035136
Mario Esteban, Ugo Armanini
ABSTRACT Spain has recently endorsed a more critical stance towards China. This article explains this posture through the application of role theory and the concept of (mis)trust. Role conflict has intensified from the interplay between China’s new roles of great power and economic and technological competitor, Spain’s higher expectations towards China, and Spain’s self-identified role, greatly influenced by its relations with its traditional European and US allies. This has generated mistrust, and Spanish authorities have shown greater concerns about Chinese behaviour. As a result, they have turned to a more conditional co-operation as evidenced by a series of recent foreign policy outcomes on the BRI, foreign investment, and 5 G networks.
{"title":"The limits of China’s engagement in the Mediterranean: Role conflict and emerging mistrust in Spain–China relations","authors":"Mario Esteban, Ugo Armanini","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035136","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Spain has recently endorsed a more critical stance towards China. This article explains this posture through the application of role theory and the concept of (mis)trust. Role conflict has intensified from the interplay between China’s new roles of great power and economic and technological competitor, Spain’s higher expectations towards China, and Spain’s self-identified role, greatly influenced by its relations with its traditional European and US allies. This has generated mistrust, and Spanish authorities have shown greater concerns about Chinese behaviour. As a result, they have turned to a more conditional co-operation as evidenced by a series of recent foreign policy outcomes on the BRI, foreign investment, and 5 G networks.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43760314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2046911
Mustafa Oz, Akan Yanik
{"title":"Fear of surveillance: Examining Turkish social media users’ perception of surveillance and willingness to express opinions on social media","authors":"Mustafa Oz, Akan Yanik","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2046911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2046911","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45153344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-21DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2033513
Andreas M. Wüst, Katharina Nicolai
ABSTRACT During the reign of King Mohammed VI, Morocco experienced a rapid expansion in regional economic and military ties that have given a gradual impetus to a shift in regional power constellations. But in the shadow of this hard power trajectory, the Moroccan regime is increasingly capitalizing on its soft power resources as well. In this paper, we demonstrate how the kingdom’s considerable cultural capital – arising from religion, historicity, and tradition – has become a political instrument to improve the country’s outward image. The regime inter alia employs cultural politics and public diplomacy measures in Islamic and Jewish religious policy, through the commercialization of material and immaterial cultural heritage and through the massive investment into cultural infrastructure to construct a new nation brand and subsequentially solidify Morocco’s regional and international soft power standing. This, in turn, has enabled Morocco to more successfully pursue its foreign policy goals, first and foremost its quest to gain sovereignty over the Western Sahara. The research is based on media analysis and original data from semi-structured interviews conducted between February 2020 and February 2021.
{"title":"Cultural diplomacy and the reconfiguration of soft power: Evidence from Morocco","authors":"Andreas M. Wüst, Katharina Nicolai","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2033513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2033513","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT During the reign of King Mohammed VI, Morocco experienced a rapid expansion in regional economic and military ties that have given a gradual impetus to a shift in regional power constellations. But in the shadow of this hard power trajectory, the Moroccan regime is increasingly capitalizing on its soft power resources as well. In this paper, we demonstrate how the kingdom’s considerable cultural capital – arising from religion, historicity, and tradition – has become a political instrument to improve the country’s outward image. The regime inter alia employs cultural politics and public diplomacy measures in Islamic and Jewish religious policy, through the commercialization of material and immaterial cultural heritage and through the massive investment into cultural infrastructure to construct a new nation brand and subsequentially solidify Morocco’s regional and international soft power standing. This, in turn, has enabled Morocco to more successfully pursue its foreign policy goals, first and foremost its quest to gain sovereignty over the Western Sahara. The research is based on media analysis and original data from semi-structured interviews conducted between February 2020 and February 2021.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46041925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-18DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2038860
B. Korany
Donald Trump US narratives towards the region have been characterized by both continuity and change. ‘Lacking a distinct foreign policy narrative’ the European Union projects its ‘internal meta-narrative of peaceful integration’ towards the MENA region, (p. 175) especially through its institutionalized Euro-Mediterranean frameworks of cooperation, which is widely perceived as normative. Without any prospect of accession and any willingness among Arab states to pursue EU reforms, however, the EU’s narrative of regional order has limited impact. Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa. Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability, editors Wolfgang Mühlberger and Toni Alaranta, is an important addition to the relatively understudied topic of narratives, both theoretically and empirically. Though the selection of regional countries can be questioned – in fact there are no states from North Africa in spite of the fact that Tunisia, Libya, Egypt have all had their 2011 uprising, or Algeria in 2018 -, the research may, and certainly will, go on by expanding to cover further case studies.
{"title":"Complex effects of international relations","authors":"B. Korany","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2038860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2038860","url":null,"abstract":"Donald Trump US narratives towards the region have been characterized by both continuity and change. ‘Lacking a distinct foreign policy narrative’ the European Union projects its ‘internal meta-narrative of peaceful integration’ towards the MENA region, (p. 175) especially through its institutionalized Euro-Mediterranean frameworks of cooperation, which is widely perceived as normative. Without any prospect of accession and any willingness among Arab states to pursue EU reforms, however, the EU’s narrative of regional order has limited impact. Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa. Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability, editors Wolfgang Mühlberger and Toni Alaranta, is an important addition to the relatively understudied topic of narratives, both theoretically and empirically. Though the selection of regional countries can be questioned – in fact there are no states from North Africa in spite of the fact that Tunisia, Libya, Egypt have all had their 2011 uprising, or Algeria in 2018 -, the research may, and certainly will, go on by expanding to cover further case studies.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44493896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-14DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2022.2035137
Y. Zoubir
ABSTRACT This article analyses the evolution of China's political and economic relations with the Greater Maghreb States (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia), a major part of the Southern Mediterranean that has attracted foreign powers. It discusses how China has gradually incorporated the Southern Mediterranean states into the New Silk Road through bilateral and multilateral relations, strategic partnerships, and the development of interconnectivity not only in the Southern Mediterranean but also onto the adjacent Sahel. Notwithstanding their dependence on Europe, the Maghreb countries' economic relations with China have grown noticeably. Due to shared historical legacy and overlapping roles, Algeria has the closest ties with China, which signed in 2014 a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Algeria, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. China strives for an environment in the region that is conducive to advancing its economic and national security interests. It seeks to enact that objective through its self-attributed roles as South-South collaborator and developer. The multilateral forums it has instituted contribute to its external altercasting of ‘developmental values’, to cultivate trust, and engage in greater socialisation with its partners. Through altercasting, Beijing expects its partners to assimilate and support its policies and accept China's national role conceptions.
{"title":"China in the Southern Mediterranean: Integrating the Greater Maghreb in the new silk road","authors":"Y. Zoubir","doi":"10.1080/13629395.2022.2035137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2022.2035137","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses the evolution of China's political and economic relations with the Greater Maghreb States (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia), a major part of the Southern Mediterranean that has attracted foreign powers. It discusses how China has gradually incorporated the Southern Mediterranean states into the New Silk Road through bilateral and multilateral relations, strategic partnerships, and the development of interconnectivity not only in the Southern Mediterranean but also onto the adjacent Sahel. Notwithstanding their dependence on Europe, the Maghreb countries' economic relations with China have grown noticeably. Due to shared historical legacy and overlapping roles, Algeria has the closest ties with China, which signed in 2014 a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Algeria, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. China strives for an environment in the region that is conducive to advancing its economic and national security interests. It seeks to enact that objective through its self-attributed roles as South-South collaborator and developer. The multilateral forums it has instituted contribute to its external altercasting of ‘developmental values’, to cultivate trust, and engage in greater socialisation with its partners. Through altercasting, Beijing expects its partners to assimilate and support its policies and accept China's national role conceptions.","PeriodicalId":46666,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48501428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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