This study focuses on Spain's shift of emphasis from Latin America to the Mediterranean basin after the loss of its last colonies in the New World in 1898. The contributors analyse the Mediterranean policies of Spain's different regimes.

While Spain is now a well-established democracy closely integrated into the European Union, it has suffered from a number of severe internal problems such as corruption, discord between state and regional nationalism, and separatist terrorism. The Politics of Contemporary Spain charts the trajectory of Spanish politics from the transition to democracy through to the present day, including the aftermath of the Madrid bombings of March 2004 and the elections that followed three days later. It offers new insights on the main political parties and the political system, on the monarchy, corruption, terrorism, regional and conservative nationalism, and on Spain's policies in the Mediterranean and the EU. It challenges many existing assumptions about politics in Spain, reaching beyond systems and practices to look at identities, political cultures and mentalities. It brings to bear on the analysis the latest empirical data and theoretical perspectives.

This volume assesses the evolution of Spain's external relations during the 1990s, within and beyond Europe, and assesses the principal challenges facing the country at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The coincidence of several crucial global and European developments has had a profound effect on Spain. Adjustment of the economy and changes in foreign policy perspectives have become unavoidable. In turn, Spain, as an increasingly self-confident member of the EU, has itself become a significant actor in European-level developments. Spain's relationship with Europe and the wider world is increasingly balanced between new constraints and new opportunities for international influence.

This title was first published in 2001: This in-depth analysis of the foreign policy behaviour of Greece and Spain, draws conclusions on the role and influence that the two southern member states have had at different times. Dimitrios Kavakas concentrates on four aspects: the history; adaptation of domestic structures; patterns of behaviour in participation of the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP); and the issue of securitization. Allowing the reader to explore other aspects apart from the study of foreign policy of European Union member states, this invaluable work will find an audience among research and masters students as well as undergraduates. It is also suitable for courses of European foreign policy, comparative policy analysis and specialist courses on politics, international relations and European studies.

This book examines the evolution of Spanish foreign policy since 1975, through five different presidencies, spanning its transformation from a dictatorial political system and backward economy to a modern European state, fully democratic and with a well-functioning market economy, under strain from the Eurozone Sovereign Debt crisis. It explains how domestic developments and external factors have combined to shape Spain’s international relations, assessing the impact of EU membership and providing an example of how middle powers can pursue their foreign policy objectives in the international system. The authors explore a range of topics including: Defence and security Economy and development Soft power Spanish policy towards the EU, the United States, Latin America, the Mediterranean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Spanish politics and history, European Union studies, foreign policy, international relations and security studies.

Passing for Spain charts the intersections of identity, nation, and literary representation in early modern Spain. Barbara Fuchs analyzes the trope of passing in Don Quijote and other works by Cervantes, linking the use of disguise to the broader historical and social context of Counter-Reformation Spain and the religious and political dynamics of the Mediterranean Basin. In five lucid and engaging chapters, Fuchs examines what passes in Cervantes’s fiction: gender and race in Don Quijote and “Las dos doncellas”; religion in “El amante liberal” and La gran sultana; national identity in the Persiles and “La española inglesa.” She argues that Cervantes represents cross-cultural impersonation -- or characters who pass for another gender, nationality, or religion -- as challenges to the state’s attempts to assign identities and categories to proper Spanish subjects. Fuchs demonstrates the larger implications of this challenge by bringing a wide range of literary and political texts to bear on Cervantes’s representations. Impeccably researched, Passing for Spain examines how the fluidity of individual identity in early modern Spain undermined a national identity based on exclusion and difference.

Engaging history of the rich cultural, social and political life of Spain from prehistoric times to the present.