Smartening the General and Middle Eastern Strategy of the European Union; Considerations for Iran

Analyzing the policies of the European Union in the Middle East and the world, indicate the existence of fundamental weaknesses in both the strategic and operational levels of this institution's activism. With a quick look at the problem, it can be seen that the lack of software and hardware balance in the general and regional strategy of the European Union is one of the most important reasons for creating such a situation; To the extent that european policy makers, aware of this fact, at the same time as signing the “Maastricht Treaty” in 1992, talked about the necessity of strengthening the hard power of the European Union in theory, and then started their practical movement in this regard. Although this goal remained at the declarative and theoretical level in the 1990s, upon entering the 21st century, it took on an operational aspect, and at the same time, the idea of smartening was extended to the European Union's Middle East strategy. since, it is expected that the European Union's focus on this area will continue in coming decades. In this case, the Middle East region will increasingly become a place for the implementation of European Union hardware ideas, and this issue will have a direct impact on Iran's interests in the region. Therefore, the continuous review of European Union activities in the region helps Iran to be aware of the challenges and opportunities arising from this as much as possible. Considering the importance and impact of soft power and hard power balancing of the European Union's general and Middle East strategy for Iran, the main issue of this article is to evaluate the performance of the European Union in order to realize the smartness of the general and Middle East strategy of this institution.

Research question: 

What are the solutions of the European Union to make its general and Middle East strategy smarter?

Research hypothesis: 

European Union using various theoretical and practical tools such as “Strategic Compass”, “European Rapid Reaction Force” and … to strengthen its hard power and in this way tries to make its general and regional action smarter.

Methodology and theoretical framework: 

In this research, Joseph Nye's smart power theory has been used to test the hypothesis and examine the status of soft power and hard power of the European Union. The term smart power refers to the combination of hard power and soft power strategies. Also, the qualitative method, based on content analysis and the approach of historical-comparative analysis and data collection from historical documents, has been used.

The findings of this research is that the European Union, although due to reasons such as the lack of unity of opinion among its member states, insufficient hardware capacities, dependence on third parties such as the United States of America and NATO, and the existence of strong regional and global competitors, is still far from becoming an smart power; Since the Maastricht Treaty, it has acted in various ways to strengthen its hard power and has taken verifiable efforts in order to increase the smartness of its general and Middle East strategy. As far as we can say, the European Union's presence in the world and the Middle East has become smarter than it was three decades ago. For Iran, this brings challenges such as increasing the security weight of Iran's regional rivals such as the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the security strategy of the European Union and opportunities such as the use of Iran's operational capacities in security fields such as border management and combating all types of smuggling.

For the reasons mentioned throughout the article, since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, using theoretical and practical hardware tools such as the Strategic Compass, the EU Military Committee, and by launching missions and operations such as operation Althea and joint naval maneuvers with third countries in areas such as the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea have started a gradual movement in line with the smartening of the general strategy. The efforts made in order to strengthen the hard power of the European Union in the region and the world, although it has recorded a growing trend, it still does not have the necessary compatibility with the global geopolitical pressures and the realities ruling the region. This means that despite the fact that the European Union has started moving in the direction of smartening its general and regional strategy, in recent years it has intensified the measures related to this area numerically and has continued this movement; But due to the problems that mentioned, it is still far from reaching the standards of a real smart power. According to the points mentioned in relation to the consequences of smartening the European Union's general and Middle East strategy, Iran can benefit from the hardware presence of the European Union in the region to create initiatives in some areas such as managing border affairs and combating all types of smuggling by inviting this institution to join such initiatives. In the field of confrontation, considering the European Union's focus on maritime security and specifically the key waterways of the Middle East and its adjacent regions, it is necessary to take measures such as strengthening Iran's maritime and land capabilities in order to help manage the borders better and increase dominance over the key water ways of the region.