Search on Ifri.org

About Ifri

Frequent searches

Suggestions

Making Sense of Europe’s Southern Neighbourhood: Main Geopolitical and Security Parameters

External Publications
|
Date de publication
|
Références
ARI 10/2017, 30 January 2017, Elcano Institute, Ifri
Image de couverture de la publication
couv_simon_pertusot_making_sense_europe_southern_neighbourhood.png
Accroche

Europe’s southern neighbourhood is a diverse but interlinked geopolitical ensemble, whose specificities need to be carefully assessed before Europeans devise dedicated security strategies, divide responsibilities and make policy decisions.

Corps analyses

This exercise in geopolitical scoping seeks to make sense of the main security challenges present in Europe’s broader European neighbourhood, a space encompassing areas as diverse as the Gulf of Guinea, the Sahel, North Africa, the Levant and the Persian Gulf. It identifies (some of) the main sub-regions that make up the ‘South’, offers an overview of the threat environment in each of them and identifies relevant differences as well as common themes. In doing so we aim to provide a conceptual referent for further policy research on the security of Europe’s ‘South’, and to help inform future strategic and policy discussions within the EU, NATO and their Member States.

Published in partnership with the Elcano Royal Institute.

 

 

 

Decoration

Available in:

Share

Download the full analysis

This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.

Making Sense of Europe’s Southern Neighbourhood: Main Geopolitical and Security Parameters

Decoration
Author(s)
Photo
vivien_couleur.jpg

Vivien PERTUSOT

Image principale
 A soldier watching a sunset on an armored infantry fighting vehicle
Security Studies Center
Accroche centre

Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.

Image principale

Taking the Pulse: Is France’s New Nuclear Doctrine Ambitious Enough?

Date de publication
12 March 2026
Accroche

French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his country’s new nuclear doctrine. Are the changes he has made enough to reassure France’s European partners in the current geopolitical context?

Image principale

Macron Offers a Promising Vision for Nuclear Deterrence in Europe

Date de publication
11 March 2026
Accroche

Macron’s concept of ‘forward deterrence’ offers a distinctly European approach to nuclear deterrence.

Héloïse FAYET Darya DOLZIKOVA
Image principale

Multiple Launch Rocket Systems Europe’s Long-standing and Enduring Dependence?

Date de publication
10 February 2026
Accroche

The war in Ukraine has underlined the importance of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) in modern conflict, especially a war without clear air superiority and hence a reduced potential for air-launched deep strike. In 2022, the European MLRS fleet was split between a variety of Western platforms developed at the end of the Cold War and specialized in precision strikes.
 

Image principale

Autonomous Systems in the Underwater Domain: A Limitless Revolution?

Date de publication
15 January 2026
Accroche

One of the decisive strategic factors in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war is the mass use of aerial, maritime, and terrestrial autonomous capabilities, which are transforming the face of the battlefield. Nevertheless, many of these drones are still remotely piloted, operated, or supervised, testifying to the fact that the autonomization of military capabilities is still at an embryonic stage.

How can this study be cited?

Image de couverture de la publication
couv_simon_pertusot_making_sense_europe_southern_neighbourhood.png
Vivien PERTUSOT, Luis SIMON, « Making Sense of Europe’s Southern Neighbourhood: Main Geopolitical and Security Parameters », External Publications, Ifri, 30 January 2017.
Copy
Image de couverture de la publication
couv_simon_pertusot_making_sense_europe_southern_neighbourhood.png

Making Sense of Europe’s Southern Neighbourhood: Main Geopolitical and Security Parameters