ABSTRACT
This is a story of continuities and discontinuities. The continuities derive from the unchanging geographic characteristics of the Mediterranean area, while the discontinuities 13can usually be traced to the perpetual flow of social, economic and political developments taking place around its shores. Accordingly, when looking at the maritime situation before and after the end of the Cold War we should expect to find, not a sudden and dramatic transformation, but more of a shift in emphasis because, while some things have changed, many have not. And this is indeed what we find. There is no doubt of the geographic and strategic continuities. Over 90 years ago Corbett wrote in typically glowing prose:
For centuries the destinies of the civilised world had seemed to turn about the Mediterranean. Each power that had in its time dominated the main line of history had been a maritime power, and its fortunes had climbed or fallen with its force upon the waters where the three continents met. It was like the heart of the world; and even the barbarians, as they surged forward in their wandering, seemed ever to be pressing from the ends of the earth towards the same shining goal, as though their thirsting lips would find there the fountain of dominion. 1
