EU's foreign policy towards the Southern Mediterranean region: The case of Libya

This thesis analyzes the Europeanization of the European Union's foreign policy towards the Southern Mediterranean region, adopting a bottom-up Europeanization approach which stresses the impact and role of member states on the EU's foreign and security policy and the uploading process of national foreign policy preferences driven by national interests to the EU level. On this basis, the thesis examines the degree of the Europeanization of European foreign policy towards the Southern Mediterranean region in the light of the case of Libya in the post-Lisbon era. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter presents an overview of "Europeanization" as a conceptual and theoretical framework, focusing on different conceptualizations, perspectives, dimensions, and scopes of Europeanization and explains the Europeanization perspective adopted in this study. The second chapter focuses on the political integration of Europe and the EU foreign policy developments and discusses the process of Europeanization in the foreign policy area. It also examines the key dimensions of the EU's engagement with the Southern Mediterranean region, explaining the main initiatives and their consequences. In the third chapter, the thesis analyzes the case of Libya, focusing on the EU policies and responses in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. In conclusion, in the light of the Libya case, the thesis presents how "bottom-up Europeanization" gained ground in the EU foreign policy towards the Southern Mediterranean region and discuss the degrees, limits and prospects of the Europeanization of EU foreign policy. Keywords: Europeanization, European Foreign Policy, Southern Mediterranean Region, Arab Spring, Libya