The changing scope of intercultural dialogue in EU Mediterranean policy

This article provides an integrative analysis of European Union efforts to promote intercultural dialogue in the framework of its Mediterranean policy from the early 1990s up to the present day. Over this period, EU promotion of intercultural dialogue has been characterized by vagueness and change. With a view to shed light on the fuzziness surrounding this concept, this article aims to understand why and how the EU has periodically changed its understanding of intercultural dialogue within its Mediterranean policy. It argues that the scope and goals of this cultural tool have gone through three different phases – ‘emergence’, ‘consolidation’, and ‘professionalization’. The main factor that determined this three-phase development is identified in the preferences of EU foreign policymakers in approaching the changing sociocultural divide in Euro-Mediterranean relations following three major turning points for EU policy therein: a) the conclusion of the cold war; b) the 9/11 terror attacks; and c) the outbreak of the Arab uprisings.