ABSTRACT
This chapter examines contemporary conflicts and stalemates in the broader Mediterranean region. While emphasizing there is no single uniform model of a ‘Mediterranean’ conflict or stalemate, it points to the main shared patterns and commonalities in a number of regional ethnopolitical issues as the Arab–Israeli, Balkan, Spanish/Catalan, Cypriot, Greek–Turkish, Kurdish and post-Arab Spring conflicts. Specifically, it asks why most power-sharing and peace-building projects have failed despite the visible involvement of European and international organizations and despite historical legacies of tolerance and accommodation in the Mediterranean region. Focusing on intra-state conflict, it argues that dominant groups have been reluctant to accommodate diversity through federalism and power-sharing, opting instead to maintain mutually hurting and destructive stalemates. Finally, to shed light on this puzzling pattern, the chapter cites recent failures to accommodate diversity, highlighting how dominant nationalisms have used negative demonstration effects and false analogies from the past to constraint attempts at political accommodation.
