The first examination of the importance of NATO's Mediterranean Initiative for the security and stability of the Euro-Mediterranean area, this book discusses the challenges, risks, and possible threats to NATO member states which may stem from the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

Articles, speeches, statements.

NATO's Mediterranean Initiative is acquiring new significance with changes in the strategic environment and changes in NATO itself. Greater attention is being devoted to developments on the southern periphery of the Alliance. Members of the NATO Dialogue will have a shared stake in addressing new security challenges, many of which are transregional and require cooperative strategies in response. A longer-term vision is essential to further development. Policy recommendations include reinforcement of the nongovernmental dimensions of the Dialogue, establishment of a region-specific agenda that can include defence training and exercises, and increasing resources devoted to the Initiative commensurate with the region's growing importance. Individual Dialogue members should be free to engage, at their own pace, in more ambitious cooperation with NATO.

This thesis analyses the challenges facing NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue. This Dialogue is an important part of NATO's adaptation to the post-Cold War security environment. It is an expression of the Alliance's policy of outreach and its cooperative approach to security. The new security concerns in the southern Mediterranean region terrorism, economic disparities, demographic imbalances, the potential for social and political instability, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction have begun to gain prominence in the Alliance, especially since the terrorist attacks of it September 2001. These challenges have enhanced NATO's significance as a vehicle to address security tasks in the southern Mediterranean region. NATO has distinctive military capabilities, and a well-established multinational organizational culture. This thesis recommends that the Dialogue be enhanced through coordination with European initiatives concerning the Mediterranean and greater involvement of the southern Mediterranean countries in the formulation and pursuit of goals and activities intended to foster peace and cooperation.

The first examination of the importance of NATO's Mediterranean Initiative for the security and stability of the Euro-Mediterranean area, this book discusses the challenges, risks, and possible threats to NATO member states which may stem from the southern and eastern Mediterranean.