For the 4^th World Congress for Middle East Studies (WOCMES), to be held in Ankara, on 18-22 August 2014.

Panel: Foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa/Les politiques étrangères du Moyen Orient et de l’Afrique du Nord

Discipline: International Relations, Political Science

Theme: Politics of the Middle East

Chair: Miguel Hernando de Larramendi (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)

Discussant: Irene Fernández Molina (European Neighbourhood Policy Chair, College of Europe, Natolin Campus)

This panel (or series of panels) will bring together scholars and researchers working on foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with either a single-country or a comparative focus, and with special interest in the developments following the 2011 uprisings and political transformations in the region. The aim will be to discuss one of the least explored aspects of the relationship between foreign and domestic policy, where a static view has generally prevailed, i.e. the dynamic effects of institutional change and regime change – discontinuity at the internal level – on the states’ foreign policy behaviour. Conversely, also the foreign policy requirements or implications of preserving the status quo while adapting to a fluid regional environment and (potentially) changing international expectations will also be considered.

For this purpose, it is suggested to start from a basic analytical framework of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) including:

1) The contextual factors or constraints (why) of foreign policies at four different levels (international or global, regional, sub-regional and domestic environments)

2) The policymaking and decision-making processes (how)

3) The resulting foreign policy output or behaviour (what)

Among the questions potentially addressed in the papers will be:

• Have recent MENA foreign policies been differentially determined by persistent structural constraints or changing circumstances in the international/global, regional, sub-regional or domestic environments? Have the hierarchies of priorities been restructured in some cases, for example, so as to give preference to securing international funding and investment to compensate for the domestic lack of economic growth and budgetary difficulties, or to address the growing security concerns in border or close neighbouring areas?

• To what extent does persistent centralisation of foreign policy making coexist since 2011 with a relative increase in participation, or a growing importance of the dynamics of coalition building and ‘cohabitation’ in power of very different political forces? Is the influence of public opinion more determining generally speaking or in some specific issues?

• What exceptions can be observed to the overall tendency of continuity in the basic external orientations of each state (absence of international normalisation or realignment processes)? How have different states adapted their foreign policy behaviour at the regional level (re-composition of alliances, combination of revolutionary solidarity with the requirements of good neighbourliness with the regimes having resisted the wave of protests) or the international level (maintenance of previous patterns in bilateral relations with the European Union, pragmatism and search for engagement and recognition by new Islamist ruling parties, particularly vis-à-vis the United States)?

Paper abstracts of around 200 words in either English or French, and following the guidelines of WOCMES 2014 (http://www.wocmes2014.org/?p=abstract), should be sent by 6 December to Miguel Hernando de Larramendi (miguel.hlarramendi@uclm.es) and Irene Fernández Molina (irene.fernandez@coleurope.eu).

Dr Irene FERNÁNDEZ MOLINA

Research Fellow

College of Europe I Natolin Campus/European Neighbourhood Policy Chair

irene.fernandez@coleurope.eu

Nowoursynowska 84. 02-797 Warsaw, Poland