scholarly journals Framing and reframing the EU’s engagement with the Mediterranean: Examining the security-stability nexus before and after the Arab uprisings

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Roccu ◽  
Benedetta Voltolini
Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis N. Xynias ◽  
Ioannis Mylonas ◽  
Evangelos G. Korpetis ◽  
Elissavet Ninou ◽  
Aphrodite Tsaballa ◽  
...  

This brief historical review focuses on durum wheat domestication and breeding in the Mediterranean region. Important milestones in durum wheat breeding programs across the countries of the Mediterranean basin before and after the Green Revolution are discussed. Additionally, the main achievements of the classical breeding methodology are presented using a comparison of old and new cultivars. Furthermore, current breeding goals and challenges are analyzed. An overview of classical breeding methods in combination with current molecular techniques and tools for cultivar development is presented. Important issues of seed quality are outlined, focusing on protein and characteristics that affect human health and are connected with the consumption of wheat end-products.


Ocean Science ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tonani ◽  
N. Pinardi ◽  
S. Dobricic ◽  
I. Pujol ◽  
C. Fratianni

Abstract. This study describes a new model implementation for the Mediterranean Sea with what is currently the highest vertical resolution over the Mediterranean basin. The resolution is of 1/16°×1/16° in the horizontal and has 72 unevenly spaced vertical levels. This model has been developed in the frame of the EU-MFSTEP project and is the operational forecast model currently used at the basin scale. The model considers an implicit free surface and this characteristic enhances the model's capability to simulate the sea surface height variability and the net transport at the Strait of Gibraltar. In this study we show the calibration/validation experiments performed before and after the model was used for forecasting. The first experiment consists of a six-year simulation forced by a perpetual year forcing, and the other experiment is a simulation from January 1997 to December 2004, forcing the model with 6-h atmospheric forcing fields from ECMWF. The model Sea Level Anomaly has been compared for the first time with satellite SLA and with ARGO data to provide evidence of the quality of the simulation. The results show that this model is capable of reproducing most of the variability of the general circulation in the Mediterranean Sea. However, some basic model inadequacies stand out and should be corrected in the near future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 5867-5877
Author(s):  
Brian R. MacKenzie ◽  
Teresa Romeo ◽  
Piero Addis ◽  
Pietro Battaglia ◽  
Pierpaolo Consoli ◽  
...  

Abstract. Management of marine fisheries and ecosystems is constrained by knowledge based on datasets with limited temporal coverage. Many populations and ecosystems were perturbed long before scientific investigations began. This situation is particularly acute for the largest and commercially most valuable species. We hypothesized that historical trap fishery records for bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus Linnaeus, 1758) could contain catch data and information for other, bycatch species, such as swordfish (Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758). This species has a long history of exploitation and is presently overexploited, yet indicators of its status (biomass) used in fishery management only start in 1950. Here we examine historical fishery records and logbooks from some of these traps and recovered ca. 110 years of bycatch data (1896–2010). These previously neglected, but now recovered, data include catch dates and amounts in numbers and/or weights (including individual weights) for the time period before and after major expansion of swordfish fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea. New historical datasets such as these could help understand how human activities and natural variability interact to affect the long-term dynamics of this species. The datasets are online and available with open access via three DOIs, as described in the “Data availability” section of the article.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Juan José Tapia-León ◽  
Emilio Galdeano-Gómez

This paper aims to understand the social-psychological dimension of the Normative Power Europe discourse using ingroup projection as a discursive/cognitive practice of othering. It takes issue with most poststructuralist studies that conduct analyses of Normative Power Europe based on the dependence of identity on difference through the discursive tendency to construct reality by opposites. Ingroup projection is based both on the need for differentiation to obtain positive distinctiveness and on the natural tendency for categorization processes by which groups share a common higher-order category. In this way, groups tend to project (ingroup projection) their traits and distinctive values onto this higher-order category to legitimate intergroup status differences. The EU’s response to the Arab uprisings serves as an empirical test for this argument, insofar as the uprisings implied a cognitive change of the EU’s “other” in the construction of the Mediterranean. Through ingroup projection, the EU (ingroup) differentiates itself from this new Arab Mediterranean other (outgroup) and projects EU’s idealized identity onto the Mediterranean region (higher-order category) to legitimate its new policies after the uprising.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Hosny Zahran

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to keep the union secured and stable. The paper also assesses to what extent the EU succeeds to promote democracy in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach The EU pursues its policy through a series of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with Egypt aiming at positioning their relations in a strategic context. The research adopted different approaches as descriptive and analytical ones. Findings Following the Arab uprisings, the EU was caught by surprise and announced a paradigm shift in its relations and introduced a set of policies to foster democracy promotion that witnessed some successes but with extremely modest results in some areas compared to the costs of the process. The EU succeeded in important reforms in trade liberalization while it did not bring clear changes in the political arena in Egypt. Originality/value The findings of this paper convey that the Arab uprisings were a wake-up call for the EU. It was the right time for the EU to conduct such a strategic and sincere reflection based on the role it wants to play in the changing region. In addition, findings prove that the EU’s response to revolutionary events has been weak and hesitant, and the EU has not an effective role in promoting democracy in Egypt.


Nutrients ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Élise Carbonneau ◽  
Marie-Michelle Royer ◽  
Caroline Richard ◽  
Patrick Couture ◽  
Sophie Desroches ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tonani ◽  
N. Pinardi ◽  
S. Dobricic ◽  
I. Pujol ◽  
C. Fratianni

Abstract. This study describes a new model implementation for the Mediterranean Sea which has the presently highest vertical resolution over the Mediterranean basin. The resolution is of 1/16°×1/16° in horizontal and 71 unevenly spaced vertical levels. This model has been developed in the frame of the EU-MFSTEP project and it is the operational forecast model presently used at the basin scale. For the first time in the Mediterranean, the model considers an implicit free surface and this characteristics enhances the model capability to simulate the sea surface height variability. In this study we show the calibration/validation experiments done before and after the model has been used for forecasting. The first experiment consist of six years of a simulation forced by a perpetual year forcing and the other experiment is a simulation from January 1997 to December 2004, forcing the model with 6 h atmospheric forcing fields from ECMWF. For the first time the model Sea Level Anomaly is compared with SLA and with ARGO data to provide evidence of the quality of the simulation. The results show that this model is capable to reproduce most of the variability of the general circulation in the Mediterranean Sea even if some basic model inadequacies stand out and should be corrected in the near future.


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