Enduring Differences? France, Germany and Europe’s Middle East Dilemma (in Special Issue: The Future of European Foreign Policy)

Abstract: In an attempt to explain Europe's lack of influence and policy inconsistency in the Middle East, the European foreign policy literature has consistently pointed towards the existence of a democratization-stabilization dilemma. According to this explanation, EU long-term interests in a more democratic region have been consistently subordinated to short-term preferences for security and regime stability. The outcome has regularly been a lack of vision and consistency. This article questions this explanation by demonstrating that European vacillation has not been informed by a static competition between realist and idealist approaches, but by different national foreign policy traditions that are based on divergent views of identity, interests and threats. Analysing continuity and change in French and German Middle East policy, the article argues that a solution to the democratization-stabilization dilemma remains close at hand.