ABSTRACT
"Civilisational" conflicts and security dilemmas reflect the inability to devise the right institutional framework that would accommodate different communal identities. The communal conflicts are also related to the lack of regional integration. The identity of the communities is both "blurred" and "exclusive" partly because of its double reference to politics and religion. The regional environment also plays an important role in the distinction of the various patterns of political relations. The age of nation states thus created security dilemmas, which partly overlapped with and partly contradicted the "civilisational" opposition between Islam and Christianity. Security is a public good in the same way as war, violence; death and mass destruction are public evils. In the fragmented societies of the Eastern Mediterranean, state authorities can provide the public good security for all groups by organising a security system, which none of the separate societies can achieve on its own.
