The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution

This book provides a comprehensive study into the promotion of regional integration as a central pillar of European Union (EU) relations with the rest of the world. It is a strategy to deal with a core security challenge: the transformation of conflicts and, in particular, regional conflicts. Yet to what extent has the promotion of regional integration been successful in transforming conflicts? What can we regard as the core mechanisms of such an impact? This volume offers a comprehensive assessment of the nexus between promoting integration and conflict transformation. The authors systematically compare the consequences of EU involvement in eight conflicts in four world regions within a common framework. In doing so, they focus on the promotion of integration as a preventative strategy to avoid conflicts turning violent and as a long-term strategy to transform violent conflicts by placing them in a broader institutional context. The book will be of use to students and scholars interested in European foreign policy, comparative regionalism, and conflict resolution.

Introduction: Promoting Regional Integration and Transforming Conflicts?.- Adapting to regional challenges? The Brussels perspective on the promotion of regional integration and conflict transformation.- PART 1: Regional Integration and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East and North Africa.- Introduction: Middle East and North Africa.- Israel-Palestine: The Mediterranean Paradox.- Western Sahara: A "head-in-the-sand" approach to Maghrebi  Integration.- Regional Integration and Conflict Resolution in Western and Eastern Africa.- PART 2: Regional Integration and Conflict Resolution in Western and Eastern Africa.- Introduction: Conflict and regionalism in Africa: framing the role of the EU.- The EU and regional integration in West Africa: what effects on conflict transformation?.- The Great Lakes and the EU: formal and informal regionalism and conflict transformation.- PART 3: Conflict and Regionalism in Latin America.- Introduction: The EU, Regional Conflicts and the Promotion ofRegional Cooperation: A Successful Strategy for a Global Challenge?.- The EU, Regional Conflicts and the Promotion of Regional Cooperation: A Successful Strategy for a Global Challenge? - Colombia's case.- The EU, Regional Conflicts and the Promotion of Regional Cooperation: A Successful Strategy for a Global Challenge? - Honduras case.- PART 4: Conflict and Regionalism in Asia.- Introduction: The EU, Regional Cooperation and Regional Conflicts: The case of the South China Sea Territorial disputes and the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.- The EU and Regional Integration as a Form of Conflict Transformation in the South China Sea.