The Mediterranean as a Zone of Conflicts

• Main Author: Paul Balta
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) 1997-09-01
• Series: Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals
• Online Access: http://www.cidob.org/es/content/download/5757/55546/file/37balta.pdf

Understanding that the Mediterranean is a region whose most well-known specificity is the existence of conflicts, Paul Balta’s article revises the principal antagonisms and their respective causes, distinguishing between the conflicts that have their origin in the distant past and those which are characteristic of the second half of the twentieth century. On one side are the inherited conflicts from the past and their links to the three monotheistic denominations which weigh in the imagination of the peoples. The inheritances that mark Mediterranean societies recall the denominational fractures among Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as the schisms between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox camps and the Sunnis and the Shiites. Highlighting these types of clashes are the Arab-Israeli dispute, the conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia, and ethnic-religious antagonisms like the existing one between Greece and Turkey. On the other hand, among the open and potential conflicts characteristic of the second half of the twentieth century the author mentions those inherited from the colonization era (fundamentally territorial in nature), those belonging to community (for example, Lebanon)and minority issues (Kosovo, Basques, Corsicans, Kurds and Berbers), and those stemming from the appropriation of Islam for political ends and the lack of respect for Human Rights and religious beliefs, economic disparities, demographic and emigration concerns, the turf struggle over control of natural resources such as petroleum, gas and fresh water, and the effects of the rivalry between Europe and the United States in the Mediterranean region.