https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/46138 2026-04-15T19:35:21Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/46571 Title: Reclaiming social Europe in the shadows of a global predatory economy Abstract: As the third millenium approaches the end of its second decade, the ideal of equality continues to be threatened by a global value system that is soft on the accumulation and concentration of wealth and power to the detriment of the collective good and to the sustainability of communities in general. Europe is not immune to the encroachment of a global, predatory economic model that has eaten into the ideal of solidarity and the common good. Description: This document contains the Table of Contents, the Keynote Welcome Address by HE Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, and photo insets. 2017-12-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/46570 Title: Managing security challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean area Abstract: Throughout history the Mediterranean has continuously been at the centre of international relations. The end of the Cold War led some pundits to believe that the Mediterranean would be marginalized in global relations. The enlargement of the European Union towards the east, the rise of China in Asia and the emergence of India and Brazil as leading economic developing countries further cemented this perception. Yet the process of globalization has not shifted international attention away from the Mediterranean. Three decades since the end of the Cold War it is clear that the Mediterranean remains an essential strategic theatre of operation linking Europe, North Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and the Black Sea together. Anyone questioning the strategic relevance of the Mediterranean in contemporary international relations must be careful not to confuse the rise of China and the Asia Pacific in general with a diminishment of the Euro-Mediterranean sphere of influence. While the East-West dynamic pattern of relations and the North-South dynamic pattern of relations continue to shift in different directions, the physical importance of the Mediterranean as a geo-strategic waterway remains a constant. 2017-12-01T00:00:00Z