Spain and the New Mediterranean: Overlapping Crises

Spain's Mediterranean policy is struggling to adapt to the combined impacts of the debt crisis in the eurozone and the Arab Spring. Spain's traditional and uncontested commitment to multilateralism and region-building in the Mediterranean and the "special" relationship with Morocco — Spain's own 3M, Mediterranean, Multilateralism, and Morocco — are not in question, but the priorities and strategy are being revised as a result of four combined drivers for change. Two of them are domestic: the victory of the Popular Party in the 2011 elections and the effects of the economic crisis. The other two are regional: a democratic opening following the Arab Spring and the proliferation of security threats in Spain's indirect vicinity, particularly in the Sahel.