ABSTRACT
Since the end of the Cold War, with the disappearance of the stability inherent in the antagonistic balance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States, profound changes have been taking place within the international system. This has been particularly true of the Mediterranean region which used to serve as a surrogate arena for superpower competition. The old superpower regional system was based on confrontation between the superpowers (and their clients), together with the non-aligned world which, in the Mediterranean and Gulf, at least, also set the superpower balance off against regional associative arrangements designed to achieve a similar level of stability through tension by mimicking the superpower divide (Little, 1989). While the structures that have begun to take shape in place of the old system in the period since 1989, during which this transition has been taking place, cannot yet be assumed to be stable elements of a new international order, some elements of durability do seem to be emerging.
