ABSTRACT
As clarified earlier, the current role of the North Atlantic Alliance in the Middle East region consists of three main aspects: NATO-Mediterranean Dialogue (with its various practical cooperative activities, including operation ‘Active Endeavour’ that is mandated to inspect ships and combat terrorist activities in the Mediterranean Sea); the newly launched ICI to foster cooperation between NATO and Arab Gulf countries; and finally, NATO’s supportive role towards select regional issues (mainly Darfur and Iraq). This chapter reviews and analyses the role of the Alliance in the Middle East region before 9/11. From the 1994 Brussels Summit to 9/11, the role of NATO, in this respect, was limited to ongoing security dialogue with some Mediterranean countries. This dialogue is known as the Mediterranean Dialogue process. The following shows that the process under investigation was informed and evolved based on the principles of liberal institutionalism reviewed earlier. This can be verified by identifying the core objectives of the process, its evolution and its governing principles, bearing in mind that MD was taking advantage of the new – as well as somewhat positive – international atmosphere that prevailed in the immediate post-Cold War years.
