The CSCE as a model to transform western relations with the greater middle east

Abstract

The last months have seen numerous proposals for a profound change of the relations between the Greater Middle East, Europe and the United States. One of the most far-reaching and ambitious plans was put forward by the United States, being labelled Greater Middle East Initiative. The initial plan, leaked to the public in February, was loosely modelled on the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). The issue has been a central topic on the agenda of numerous meetings and summits over the past months, including the EU-US summit in Ireland and the NATO summit in Turkey. The G-8 summit at Sea Island in Georgia, USA, agreed on a – watered-down – version of the initiative. The approved Partnership for Progress and a Common Future intends to reframe Western relations with the “governments and peoples of the Broader Middle East and North Africa”. <br /> However, the identification of a certain area is already where the problems of any grand design for the region begin, since there is no general consensus on the geographical limits to any kind of CSCE-analogous framework. The “V. Mediterranean Forum” held at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) on June 24 and 25, 2004, addressed this and other issues that need to be considered for any new framework for the relations with the Greater Middle East. The “Mediterranean Forum” at ZEI is part of a larger project of co-operation between ZEI and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue. It takes place in the framework of Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission (EuroMeSCo) activities. ZEI and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation graciously recognize financial support of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. <br /> The statements and interventions made during the “V. Mediterranean Forum” under the title “A CSCE-analogous framework for the Greater Middle East?” are assembled in this Discussion Paper. As fascinating and ambitious as a CSCE-analogous framework for the Greater Middle East might be, the concept is not totally new and revolutionary, however. Already in 1976, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin proposed the establishment of a Conference on Security and Co-operation in the Middle East, framed on the CSCE accords of 1975. The idea of transposing the CSCE experience to the region was then again put forward by Jordan since the beginning of the 1990s. Little has been done, though, to identify potentials and obstacles of such a process. The contributions published in this Discussion Paper intend to give answers to some of the questions still and again being debated in Europe, the United States and in the Greater Middle East.