Barcelona Dreams

As the bloody war in Iraq sputters on, European Union leaders will meet in Barcelona this weekend to discuss a much different sort of attempt to extend Western influence in the Muslim world. The Barcelona Process is the name that was given, ten years ago, to the European drive to reform the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East with a soft power approach. The EU is the most prominent civilian donor to these countries, and has attempted to engage them through economic incentive and the strengthening of civil society – techniques that are a far cry from the bombs dropped on Baghdad or the hardline response to a renegade Iran. While the approach was certainly ahead of its time when it was initiated in 1995, the hopeful alternative to force is considered by many to have been ineffective. That however, may be overstating the case. If the Barcelona Process has not yet produced miracles of reform, neither has it been a disaster. Some progress has been made. The lesson to be learned, as EU leaders meet to revise their policies, is that soft power requires both a predisposition toward it on the part of Muslim countries, and a bit stronger push to truly succeed. – YaleGlobal