Europe and the Arab World: Patterns and Prospects for the New Relationship

Review “These essays offer a forceful indictment of the European attempt since 1995 to put the relationship with neighbouring Arab countries on a more equitable footing.” ―The International History Review Product Description Europe and the Arab World is a wide-ranging assessment of the prospects for a new relationship between Europe and the Arab world in the coming years. Samir Amin and Ali El Kenz take as their starting point the significantly shifting balance of political forces within the various Arab countries, including the rise of both political Islam and civil society. They argue that the strategic global hegemony of the United States constitutes a major element affecting the Euro-Arab relationship. They then focus on the European Union initiative, originally launched in Barcelona, to put its relations with the Arab countries of the Mediterranean and Gulf regions on a new footing of equality and mutually beneficial cooperation. The authors provide a detailed empirical account of the initiative as well as an historically contextualized, intellectually critical and politically perceptive analysis of the various realities impacting on it.Samir Amin and Ali El Kenz conclude that, while considerable dialogue and even institution-building have taken place in order to give substance to this attempt to go beyond the colonial legacy of inequality and dependence, little of a concrete kind has been achieved in transforming the underlying economic and political relationships between the Arab Islamic and European Christian worlds of the Mediterranean. Among the many obstacles identified are the overriding and economically deleterious impact of globalized capitalism, and the determination of the United States to impose its own political objectives on the Middle East.The timeliness of this book's argument is highlighted by the new tensions that have accompanied the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and the Bush administration's political pretensions to 'bring democracy' to the whole region. About the Author Samir Amin is Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal; and a co-founder of the World Forum for Alternatives. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Europe and the Arab WorldPatterns and Prospects for the New RelationshipBy Samir Amin, Ali El KenzZed Books LtdCopyright © 2005 Samir Amin and Ali El KenzAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84277-436-6ContentsAcknowledgements, vi, 1 The Arab world: a balance sheet of the present situation and struggles, 1, 2 The Mediterranean-Gulf region: some international policy problems, 50, 3 Euro-Mediterranean relationships: globalization and regionalization, 74, 4 On the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, 131, Appendix: Basic data on the Arab world, 139, Sources and bibliography, 152, Index, 158, CHAPTER 1The Arab world: a balance sheet of the present situation and strugglesWhat follows is an attempt to identify the questions posed by movements and struggles within the Arab world, analysing and assessing their ambiguities and limitations. It takes the inherent contradictions of the system as a starting point, identifying the conditions for popular and democratic progress that might be facilitated by these struggles.The autocratic state faced with the challenge of modernityThere is no democratic state in the Arab world. There are only autocratic states. Although autocratic, Arab political regimes have not always been – and still are not – without legitimacy in the eyes of their own societies. According to Hashem Sharaby, state power has always been synonymous with personal power, as opposed to the power of the law defining the modern state. This Weber-like descriptive analysis is worth qualifying since the personal (or personalized) powers in question are legitimate only in so far as they are proclaimed as being respectful of the tradition (and especially of the religious shariah) and are perceived as such. From a more in-depth perspective, S