Towards a polycrisis? Socioeconomic, environmental and political crises in the Mediterranean

Seminar Series of the ECPR Research Network on Mediterranean Politics and Society

The Global Risk Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum draws a map that shows how several global risks and crises are interconnected, showing the potential of a "polycrisis" to arise as Historian Adam Tooze has argued. In this mapping, it is hard to find an area that is not relevant for the Mediterranean, particularly but not only in the Southern countries of the Mediterranean shore: (geo-)political, social, economic and environmental, technology related risks.

Several crises have been unfolding for quite some time in West Asia and North Africa (WANA): the waves of Arab uprisings in 2011 and 2019 already showed the huge political and socioeconomic discontent across the region. Obviously, existing state-society and state-economy relations had proven unsustainable. However, in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine socioeconomic grievances have even worsened: inflation, rising prices for food and energy, shortages of basic goods, high rates of unemployment, insufficient social protection. Also political liberties and rights have further suffered from even more repressive authoritarian regimes that also support and learn from each other including digital forms of repression. Regional geopolitical relations have seen dramatic shifts since 2011 that directly affected regime trajectories and violent conflict. Relations between regional powers have also been affected by an increasing competition and even conflict between global powers, further worsened since Russia’s war in Ukraine. All of these crises are interwoven with the effects of climate change that will severely impact the region that is already water scarce and food insecure.

Some crises are similar in the EU and its Southern members states in particular, others are also directly interrelated with the Southern shore of the Mediterranean. While the Southern EU members states share for instance the environmental dimension they are also particularly affected by migration from and through the Southern Mediterranean. Securitization of refugees has led to renewed cooperation with authoritarian leaders in the field of migration control that includes economic incentives that help stabilizing in itself unsustainable regimes. In the tense relations with China and particularly with Russia, the EU seems to feel the need to build alliances with any kind of regimes and secure fossil and green energy resources, creating new dependencies between EU and the Southern Mediterranean.

In order to understand the single crises as well as their interconnectedness, the Research Network on Mediterranean Politics and Society sets up a seminar series to bring together the vast expertise in the respective fields from among the members of the group and beyond. The aim is to share in-depth analyses of ongoing crises of various issue fields, to engage in discussions about the interconnectedness of crises and possible future scenarios as well as the responsibility of political elites on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Mediterranean Politics and Society Research Network of the ECPR invites affiliated scholars to present their work during its online seminar series.

Convened and chaired by Professor Sarah Wolff (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr. Irene Weipert-Fenner (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), the seminar will be held online starting from November 2023. It will allow scholars from various stages in their career to present ongoing research to a diverse audience. Discussants will provide feedback.

We welcome applications from a variety of career stages to present their research and see this as an opportunity to expand our network and to get members to know about each other research, build links and collaborations in the future.

If you are interested please email us at weipert@prif.org.