The Arab uprisings caught the European leaders, analysts and academics by surprise. The fact that no one has predicted these extraordinary events in the Arab region is not surprising considering the “Orientalist” rhetoric (Said, 1978) of the European foreign policy which emphasised the deficiencies, irrationality and anti-modern character of the Arab societies and their governments in comparison to the Western model of liberal democracy Given this, it is argued that there is a need for a radical paradigm shift in the European Union’s foreign policy, one that would problematize and deconstruct well-established assumptions and preconceptions on what constitutes modernity in order to avoid repetition of the same mistakes which could lead to further popular alienation and escalation of conflict.
This paper takes as its starting point the insights of postcolonial theories, which perhaps due to their origins in literary studies (Gandhi, 1998) and their emphasis on subaltern, domination and resistance, have been, with few exceptions, overlooked in international relations. It is argued here that a postcolonial perspective, despite its limitations and flaws, can help us to unpack hidden rationales, power-dimensions and politico-economic foundations of seemingly non-ideological, non-political and non-intrusive European foreign policy. This paper will highlight several analytical claims of postcolonial theories, which bring a significant criticism of the universalist position of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) vis-à-vis its Maghreb neighbours, its pre-defined notions and conflict-neutral concepts of democracy and development.
