Conflicts in and among Mediterranean Countries (1945–2001)

The Mediterranean is at the crossroad of three continents: of Southern Europe, North Africa (Maghreb), and South-West Asia (Mashreq). During the Greek and Roman period this region was both culturally and politically united. Later different parts went separate ways: on the Northern shore Italy, France, and Spain had a common history with Europe; in the East Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and parts of the former Yugoslavia were part of the Ottoman Empire; the Maghreb countries with Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were former French colonies; Libya had a colonial history with Italy, and Egypt, Malta, Palestine with England. The more recent historical developments produced a diverse political map that contributed to different conflict cleavages. According to Dimitris K. Xenakis and Dimitris N. Chryssochoou (2001: 28):

Throughout history, the Mediterranean has been as much a laboratory for the cross-fertilisation of diverse cultures as it has been a place of open and protracted conflicts. Being a heterogeneous synthesis of various religious and ethnic groups — along the lines of a ‘heter-archy’ — as well as of unequal economic development, a plurality of political regimes, divergent perceptions of security (threats), and uneven demographic growth, Mediterranean complexity occupies a prominent position between order and disorder.