Research project VP/10 (Research action VP)
The "strategic mass" of the Mediterranean (in the broader sense) proves that it is a region where the risk of serious conflict remains highest. Firstly, because it is among the regions of the world where the concentration of military power is highest. Secondly, because it is the stage of incessant endogenous conflicts, both between states (Iran-Iraq, Israel-Arabic states) and within states (Lebanon, Sudan, Jibuti, etc.). Thirdly, because it is characterised by a ramified network of military bases of extra-Mediterranean countries.
Yet the processes that contribute most to eroding security in the Mediterranean are economic (inequality between the two bordering coasts), demographic (demographic explosion in the South, ageing in the North), and cultural (emergence of exclusion dialectic on both sides).
As a crossroad and passageway between three continents, at the intersection of several cultures (Arabic, Muslim, Mediterranean, European), the Mediterranean appears increasingly today as a "threat", a "problem sea", a "bitter Mediterranean".
This research aims to analyse insecurity factors in the Mediterranean and to examine measures (CSCM, Development Bank for the Mediterranean, scenarios for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, controlling migration flows, etc.) liable to block trends in social and economic development that in actual fact negatively affect security. While scientific in its approach and methodology, the research nevertheless has the ambition to formulate concrete proposals liable to contribute to policy decisions.
