Engineering
The South Mediterranean region has considerable endowments in natural gas, oil, iron ore, phosphates, steel, wood extracts, zinc and fisheries, as well as for Mediterranean agriculture products. Daniel FIOTT would like to see this potential translated into something he would call ‘resource-full revolutions’. Specific initiatives would include a Euro-Med Energy Community, bearing in mind the experience of the EU in extending its energy policies into south-east Europe, which places an important emphasis on harmonization of the regulatory environment. He refers also to the Mediterranean Solar Plan of the Union for the Mediterranean, and the intentions of the EU to conclude new trade liberalization agreements for fisheries and agriculture. At the G20 level there were attempts this year to advance commodity policies, such as with the new Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which FAO is entrusted to develop, but these remain to prove their value.
This paper describes the energy sector in the Mediterranean and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries. It first analyses the production of energy by fossil and renewable sources and discusses the increasing demand in the area and its consequences. It describes the policy frameworks to promote renewable energy as well as fossil-fuel subsidies, which are still abundant in the MENA area. It presents some avenues for integration across the Mediterranean and finally it discusses the implications of the Arab springon energy production in the next future.
The recent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have brought into stark relief the conflict between democratic values and strategic interests in U.S. foreign policy. Americans are known for commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, yet the U.S. Government is frequently unwilling to step forward and openly express even rhetorical support for reform movements in foreign countries. In fact, initial American reluctance to support the recent “Arab Spring” uprisings serves as another example of what scholars argue is a general exception in the MENA to broader post-Cold War rising costs of maintaining autocracy. This article explores the American response to the recent MENA uprisings and their significance in terms of U.S. fossil fuel energy security using the theoretical lens of structural realist international relations theory.