Despite being challenged by authoritarian counter-revolutionary responses, the Coronavirus pandemic, and a complex (geo)political context, the uprisings that started ten years ago in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa are still very much alive. By adopting a comparative approach, this comprehensive volume investigates the ongoing protests on three levels of analysis (local, national, regional) and through seven case studies (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia). Particular attention is also placed on the role of the European Union and its member states in this historical transformation.

EU-Middle East relations are multifaceted, varied and complex, shaped by historical, political, economic, migratory, social and cultural dynamics. Covering these relations from a broad perspective that captures continuities, ruptures and entanglements, this handbook provides a clearer understanding of trends, thus contributing to a range of different turns in international relations. The interdisciplinary and diverse assessments through which readers may grasp a more nuanced comprehension of the intricate entanglements in EU-Middle East relations are carefully provided in these pages by leading experts in the various (sub)fields, including academics, think-tankers, as well as policymakers. The volume offers original reflections on historical constructions; theoretical approaches; multilateralism and geopolitical perspectives; contemporary issues; peace, security and conflict; and development, economics, trade and society. This handbook provides an entry point for an informed exploration of the multiple themes, actors, structures, policies and processes that mould EU-Middle East relations. It is designed for policymakers, academics and students of all levels interested in politics, international and global studies, contemporary history, regionalism and area studies.

EU–Middle East relations are multifaceted, varied and complex, shaped by historical, political, economic, migratory, social and cultural dynamics. Covering these relations from a broad perspective that captures continuities, ruptures and entanglements, this handbook provides a clearer understanding of trends, thus contributing to a range of different turns in international relations. The interdisciplinary and diverse assessments through which readers may grasp a more nuanced comprehension of the intricate entanglements in EU–Middle East relations are carefully provided in these pages by leading experts in the various (sub)fields, including academics, think-tankers, as well as policymakers. The volume offers original reflections on historical constructions; theoretical approaches; multilateralism and geopolitical perspectives; contemporary issues; peace, security and conflict; and development, economics, trade and society. This handbook provides an entry point for an informed exploration of the multiple themes, actors, structures, policies and processes that mould EU–Middle East relations. It is designed for policymakers, academics and students of all levels interested in politics, international and global studies, contemporary history, regionalism and area studies.

The emerging literature on the so-called 'Arab Spring' has largely focused on the evolution of the uprisings in cities and power centres. In order to reach a more diversified and inner understanding of the 'Arab Spring', this edited book examines how peripheries have reacted and contributed to the historical dynamics at work in the Middle East and North Africa. It rejects the idea that the 'Arab Spring' is a unitary process and shows that it consists of diverse Springs which differed in terms of opportunity structure, strategies of a variance of actors, and outcomes. This book looks at geographical, religious, gender and ethnical peripheries, conceptualizing periphery as a dynamic structure which can expand and contract. It shows that the seeds for changing the face of politics and polities are within peripheries themselves. Focusing on the voices of peripheries can therefore be a powerful tool to 'de-simplify' the reading of the Arab Spring and to reshape the paradigmatic schemes through which to look at this part of the world. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.