Interrogating the European Union’s Democracy Promotion Agenda: Discursive Configurations of ‘Democracy’ from the Middle East

Following the electoral victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections of January 2006, the international community reacted by suspending aid to the democratically elected Hamas government. Across Middle Eastern societies, this move and the events that followed since, ushered in a complete loss of credibility in the discourse of external actors like the European Union (EU) and their declared quest for promoting democracy in the region. Are we witnessing the demise of the EU’s democracy promotion agenda given the perception from the Middle East (ME) in regard to its inconsistent discourse? This article aims to address how a critical engagement with the ways in which the EU constructs itself as a normative power, in its attempts at exporting its model of liberal democracy, might shed light on questions central to contemporary EU-ME relations. In particular, it focuses on how an inquiry into political grammars might illuminate discursive configurations of ‘democracy’ in the ME. By way of conclusion, the article holds that the EU’s discourse on democracy promotion in the ME can be reframed and this process of reframing need not negate its principles

The Construction of EU Normative Power and the Middle East ‘Conflict’ … 16 Years on

In this article, I revisit my 2007 piece on The Construction of EU Normative Power (NP) and the Middle East ‘conflict’ and bring in Manners' Arrival of NP in Planetary Politics' (NPA) frame to shed light on how the EU's southern neighbourhood and its social and political fragility becomes amplified by the ‘force multiplier’ of climate mitigation. For example, in 2018, Gaza sewage led to the closure of Israeli beaches and the shutdown of the desalination plant in Ashkelon, which supplies Israel with 15% of its drinking water. This is but one example of how Israel and Palestine are not only inter-dependent but, perhaps more importantly, co-dependent. This article therefore draws attention to the urgent need of thinking on the co-constitution of all life on earth, particularly in a climate-conflict scenario such as that of Israel and Palestine. Water scarcity, rising temperatures and electricity interruptions contribute to the region's instability. If policy-makers from the region and beyond are to co-ordinate policy interventions around water and food insecurity for instance, they cannot ignore intractable conflicts such as the Israeli–Palestinian issue and their ensuing implications for planetary politics. Such enduring ‘conflicts’ represent a microcosmic image of the planet as a whole. Along with the other contributions in this symposium, this piece invokes planetary politics as the space where we need – out of necessity – to think differently: Otherwise, others will be writing the script for us

Settler Colonialism (Without Settlers) and Slow Violence in the Gaza Strip

Israel's ongoing settler colonialism in occupied Palestinian territory impacts Palestinians' everyday life in all its aspects. In this article we demonstrate how Israel's interventions, in particular since its "withdrawal" from the Gaza Strip in 2005, can be conceptualized through a combined lens of settler colonialism and slow violence. We suggest that settler colonial violence and strategies of carceration, exploitation and elimination of the existing population - without the physical presence of settlers inside Gaza - is not only inherent in the production of a new reality and geography, but also at the core of the transformation of life of Gazans into non-life. While Israel has fewer and weaker moral obligations over Gaza's population, at the same time it creates the possibility of manipulating destructive power and violent practices. With a specific focus on Israel's interventions in the field of health, we examine how power, violence and health are entangled in conflict zones in general and in Gaza in particular, by documenting and critically analysing the effect of violence in general and infrastructure demolition in particular, on the everyday life of Gazans. We conclude that Israel's withdrawal marks not only a continuation but even a radicalization of settler colonialism in the Gaza Strip through (often) slow violence

Trauma, Emotions and Memory in World Politics:The Case of the European Union’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East Conflict

This article focuses on the impact of emotions on the European Union (EU)’s international identity and agency in the context of the memory of trauma. Emotions are understood as performances through which an actor expresses itself to others while constructing its identity, creating its agency, and potentially affecting the social order. It is argued that the memory of trauma is translated into EU foreign policy practice through emotional performances of EU representatives. Empirically, we explore this impact in relation to the EU’s engagement in the Israel-Palestinian prolonged conflict that has many underlying emotions linked with past traumatic experiences. By doing so, we aim to instigate a discussion between the emotions literature in International Relations and the European Union studies literature to nuance understanding of the politics of emotions that increasingly constrain what kind of a global actor the EU actually is or can becom