The Mediterrean from a point of view of comprehensive security

Abstract

The article tackles the various multi-dimensional, comprehensive conceptions of security, constructing and operationalizing the notion of comprehensive security and appliying it to the case of the Western Mediterranean. The article contains three parts, Part 1 briefly reviews the evolution of the concept of security and the various adjectives asociated to it. Specifically, it contrasts the different usages made of the expression «global security», including the pressure for the consideration of violent conflictivity, and it explores its analytical potential in relation to its application to regional studies. Part 2 constructs and operationalizes the various dimensions that should be encompassed by a comprehensive security conception, as well as a framework for analysis for application to particular cases, in the direction of an analytical, moderately prescriptive utilization. Part 3 is devoted to the case-study: the general consideration of the viability of its application to the Mediterranean, and, specifically, to the Western Mediterranean.