MEDITERRANEAN POLITICS

Students will learn how to apply the analytical tools of Political Science to Euro-Mediterranean Relations. They will be able to understand regional patterns of cooperation, political territorial disputes, regional unbalances, persistent authoritarianism or trends of political change, burning issues in the regional agenda such as migration.  

The Negotiation Lab on Migration Politics provides students with the negotiations' techniques acquired via a hands-on exercise.

This teaching relies upon traditional lectures and active learning, i.e. presentations in class and simulation of negotiations concerning migration issues. This seminar format fosters autonomous learning and the elaboration of personal opinions and critical stances on Mediterranean Politics.
The first part of the course - lectures from October to December - relies upon compulsory lectures (see selected chapters of the Routledge handbook on Mediterranean Politics). Students are required to to read texts beforehand so to actively participate in the class debate. Students illustrate individually or in group (2/3 presenters) the content of selected readings with the support of a ppt or prezi presentation. 
The second part of the course (January) relies upon students’ simulations.

Negotiation Lab on Migration Politics. It has a hands-on nature, namely it helps understanding the complex EU decision–making process concerning migration. This Negotiation Lab seeks to render the decision-making process more tangible and comprehensible to students by exploring the complex negotiations among EUMS within the Council of the EU, the inter-institutional negotiation re the Dublin Regulation Reform, considering European Commission and European Parliament different stances and roles. The European Union is often said to be distant from EU citizens. This Negotiation Lab boosts interest on the EU migration policy, by zooming into the intra-EU tensions. 

The Negotiation Lab is a practical experience of simulation of negotiations whose success depends on active attendance.

This teaching course explores the Mediterranean area and provides the theoretical and analytical tools to explain political processes and understand critical security issues in the area.

In order to explore EU relations with the Southern Neighbors, it investigates relations between regional and global actors (in particular EU, USA and Southern Mediterranean Countries), state and non-state actors (e.g. political parties and civil society organizations), transnational actors and International Organizations.

It focuses upon the most relevant on-going processes in the Mediterranean area, namely EMP/UfM, ENP, democratization (or lack of), and crucial issues such as regional territorial disputes, security (maritime security in particular), migration, terrorism, energy security, etc. 

The Negotiation Lab on Migration Politics has a hands-on nature.  It helps understanding the complex EU decision–making process concerning migration. This Negotiation Lab seeks to render the decision-making process more tangible and comprehensible to students by exploring the complex  negotiations among EUMS within the Council of the EU, the inter-institutional negotiation concerning, e.g.,  the Dublin Regulation Reform, considering the EU institutions' different stances and roles. The European Union is often said to be distant from EU citizens. This Negotiation Lab boosts interest  and knowlege on the EU migration policy by zooming into the intra-EU tensions.

WEEK 1: Bank A. & Busse J., MENA political science research a decade after the Arab uprisings: Facing the facts on tremulous grounds, Mediterranean Politics, 2021, 26:5, 539-562.

Panebianco Stefania, Conceptualising the Mediterranean Global South: A research agenda on security, borders and human flows, in ‘De Europa’, 2021, vol. 4, Issue n.1, pp. 17-34, available in OPEN ACCESS: https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/deeuropa/article/view/5514

WEEK 2: Keukeleire, S.,  Lecocq, S., and  Volpi, F. (2021)  Decentring Norms in EU Relations with the Southern Neighbourhood. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies,  59:  891–908. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13121.

Josua M. & Edel M., The Arab uprisings and the return of repression, Mediterranean Politics, 2021, 26:5, 586-611. [further reading]

WEEK 3: Grappi G. & Lucarelli S., Bordering power Europe? The mobility-bordering nexus in and by the European Union, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2022, 30:2, 207-219.

Panebianco S., The Mediterranean Migration Crisis: Humanitarian practices and migration governance in Italy, in ‘Contemporary Italian Politics’, 2019, vol. 11, n. 4, pp. 386-400. [further reading]

Tallis, B. Operationalising the borderscape: making sense of proliferating (in)securities and (im)mobilities. Int Polit 59, 410–427 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-021-00280-w [further reading]

WEEK 4: Attinà Fulvio, Mediterranean Security and the World Policies. The Overlooked Link, in Panebianco Stefania (ed.), Border Crises and Human Mobility in the Mediterranean Global South. Challenges to Expanding Borders, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 21-42.

Springborg R.,  Security assistance, securitization, security systems, and insecurity in the Mediterranean mashriq and maghreb, Mediterranean Politics, 2023, online first.

WEEK 5: Freedman, J., Immigration, Refugees and Responses. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies,  2021, 59: 92–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13258.

Geddes, A., The Politics of European Union Migration Governance. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies,  2018, 56:  120–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12763.

Alagna F.,  Civil Society and Municipal Activism Around Migration in the EU: A Multi-Scalar Alliance-Making, Geopolitics, 2023, online first. [further reading]

Fontana I., The EU and the Politics of Migration in the Mediterranean: From Crisis Management to Management in Crisis, in Panebianco Stefania (ed.), Border Crises and Human Mobility in the Mediterranean Global South. Challenges to Expanding Borders, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 91-118. [further reading]

WEEK 6: Kaldor M., Human Security: Political Authority in a Global Era, in Martin M. and Owen T. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Human Security, Routledge, pp. 54-75.

Panebianco S., Human Security at the Mediterranean Borders: Humanitarian Discourse in the EU Periphery, in ‘International Politics’, vol. 59, issue 3, 2022, pp. 428-448, available in OPEN ACCESS: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-021-00316-1 [further reading]

WEEK 7: Negotiation Lab on Migration Politics.

Smeets S. & Beach D., ‘It is like déjà vu all over again’ an inside analysis of the management of EU migration reform, Journal of European Integration, 2023, online first.

This teaching course adopts a student-centred learning approach. Therefore, students’ knowledge is assessed via a continuous evaluation of the students’ performance in the different roles they perform: acting as discussant, paper-presenter, negotiator, or defending the mini-essay. 

Every week, students provide a resumé (500 words) and a slide of the assigned readings to show that they can apply the Political Science theoretical tools, language and approaches. 

The final mini-essay covers one of the topics addressed by the Mediterranean Politics teaching course. Students must choose 1 question out of a list provided by the instructor and must use academic readings.

The final evaluation will take into account class debate, presentations, simulation and final essays. These tasks will be assessed as follows: participation in the class debate (20%); class presentations (20%); simulations during the negotiation lab (30%) and the final written paper (mini-essay) (30%). 

The final evaluation relies upon written mini-essays addressing the following sample issues: 

1. Define the Mediterranean as a region by making use of the appropriate literature.
2. Select and explore a topical issue in the regional agenda.
3. Apply the literature on regionalization to the Mediterranean and explain the ‘volatile regionalism’ model. 
4. Explain the ‘winds of democratic change’ in the Mediterranean.The Arab uprisings produced uneven outcomes, please provide an explanation of these uneven outcomes by referring to the existing literature on democratization and making use of appropriate case-studies.
5. The EU as a democracy-promoter: pitfalls and strengths of this normative approach.
6. What kind of theories can explain resilience and transition in the MENA? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
7. How to overcome the border control-humanitarian approach divide when addressing the Mediterranean migration crisis.
8. Addressing Migration in the Mediterranean: burden-sharing versus burden-shifting 
9. Managing migration in the Mediterranean despite North-South/East-West cleavages 

Provide a sound answer, related to the topic. 

Elaborate an original contribution.

Provide a robust argument (not just an opinion piece).

Add pertinent examples and illustrations.

Use appropriately the compulsory readings (the further readings can be used as well).

Add accurate bibliographical references (no less than 3/4 readings).