Talking tough or talking together?: European security discourses towards the Mediterranean

Abstract

The tense security environment produced by 9/11 and subsequent terrorist bombings in Madrid, London as well as in Arab states from Morocco to Jordan had an impact on the understanding of various actors about political Islam, but this did not automatically entail a convergence of views or solutions to existing dilemmas. This article examines examples of security discourse towards Islam at three levels: at the level of the national member state (in the case of the United Kingdom), at the level of the European Union (EU) and at the level of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP.) It highlights that while there has been a progressive securitization of political Islam at the national level within the UK, there is an absence of a coherent agenda on the part of the EU, and between the EU and the Arab Euro-Mediterranean partners there is increasing divergence towards security issues