The Challenges of State Sustainability in the Mediterranean

This volume is the product of a conviction regarding the importance of sustainability in understanding Mediterranean politics. Too often state sustainability had been erroneously confused with regime stability. Not only are these two concepts distinct, with sustainability being broader and deeper than stability. Also, pursuing regime stability has often acted to the detriment of state sustainability. The conviction underpinning this research has been corroborated by the events that have overwhelmed the Arab world since December 2010. Indeed, the year 2011 will go down in history as a critical turning point in the political evolution of the Mediterranean region. The popular uprisings that have swept across the Arab world and have led to the toppling of the Ben Ali and the Mubarak regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, have fundamentally altered the social, economic and political outlook of the region and, consequently, its relations with the European Union.

Silvia Colombo is Researcher at the Mediterranean & Middle East Department of the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI).

Nathalie Tocci is Deputy Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and Associate Editor of The International Spectator, the IAI English language quarterly.