ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to elucidate how the EU constructs the Middle East in its relations with the actors in the region. It looks into three main dimensions in this regard: security, politico-cultural and socio-economic. In security terms, the EU constructs the Middle East as dangerous and securitises the region with reference to regional conflicts, immigration, terrorism, proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and energy. In politico-cultural terms, EUrope depicts the Middle East with an essentialist culturalist view; i.e. as mainly composed of authoritarian regimes and societies that are unwilling and unable to democratise. This inability and reluctance to democratise are mainly attributed to their Muslim culture, which is almost always represented as incompatible with democracy. In socio-economic terms, the Middle East is predicated by EUropeans as backward/underdeveloped, while they increasingly securitise the region due to its young populations which are represented as threatening due to the possibility of immigration. This chapter argues that EUropean representations of the Middle East as backward/imperfect go hand in hand with the construction of an ideal identity for EUrope vis-à-vis its Middle Eastern other, legitimising the EU’s asymmetrical and securitised approach to the region.
