ABSTRACT
The Importance of non-military aspects of security notwithstanding, this chapter focuses on the military dimension. Non-offensive defence (NOD) is a militaiy doctrine that stresses the predominance of defensive over offensive military potentials with a view to minimizing every country's ability to attack while enhancing its ability to defend its own territory. The Western Mediterranean might thus benefit a great deal from the experience gathered in Europe with Confidence-Building Measures. A more realistic approach would be to distinguish between the Western Mediterranean, which has a "personality" of its own, and the Eastern Mediterranean, which is more closely linked to the Middle East. The Mediterranean is heterogeneous in economic, cultural, political and military terms, but the differences need not present insurmountable obstacles to the abandonment of an obsolete security model which no longer benefits anyone. Even though an NOD-Inspired reorientation of defence policies would be a major contribution to confidence building, several complementary measures might be relevant in this respect.
