ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a preliminary description of the development model that spread in most Mediterranean MENA countries 1 during the 1990s and 2000s and the influence that Euro-Mediterranean relations had on its development. Particular attention will be paid to the shortcomings of this development model fostered by the intensification of the Euro-Mediterranean economic relations and their contribution to the 2011 wave of uprisings. The first part will summarize the crucial political and economic changes that occurred in the region at the beginning of the 1990s. The end of the Cold War and launch of the Barcelona Process marked the beginning of a new era and the shaping of a new developmental model for most of the Mediterranean MENA countries. Utilizing the framework of the domino effect theory of regional trade developed by Baldwin (1997), this chapter will provide an explanation for the rapidity by which numerous bilateral agreements have been signed by the EU and by nearly all of its southern partners in the past two decades. Furthermore, a brief description of the particular historical context in which the Barcelona Process was initiated will highlight additional factors that both led to its rapid development and resulted in its key shortcomings.
