The Mediterranean Vacuum. Making and Unmaking of a Political Space

This research examines the reconfiguration of the Mediterranean political space, with a focus on the gradual unravelling of its previously established post-Cold War structure and the emergence of competing visions of order. It conceptualizes the current situation as a political vacuum: a condition characterised by the absence of an accepted and (asymmetrically) legitimised symbolic framework capable of structuring political relations across the region. Within this vacuum, diverse and often conflicting ideas (and thus political projects) circulate, reshaping the region's symbolic architecture, authority structures, and international power dynamics.

The study investigates the weakening of the Euro-Mediterranean framework by analysing the combined effects of the EU's fragmented and inconsistent foreign policy, and the transformation of domestic political fields in post-uprising North African states. These developments have challenged the Euro-centric orientation that historically underpinned contemporary Mediterranean relations, opening space for alternative actors and narratives to gain influence.

The research is grounded in qualitative empirical data derived from over 100 semi-structured (mainly elite) interviews and participant observation at formal political fora and multilateral meetings conducted in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Brussels. This is triangulated with descriptive statistics and analysis of official policy documents. Theoretically, the project draws on International Political Sociology and critical approaches to regional ordering to examine how symbolic authority is produced, contested, and transformed. It offers both an empirically rich and conceptually grounded account of how the Mediterranean is being re-made as a space of geopolitical and cultural contestation after its post-1990s order.