EU Security Practices in the Mediterranean Region, Redux?

Migration, visa, readmission agreements, data protection or counter-terrorism are today at the heart of EU external relations. Over the last decade, and until the 2011 Arab uprisings, the external dimension of Justice and Home Affairs (ED-JHA) has been particularly prominent in the EU security practices towards the Mediterranean.  Drawing from previous research, this article explains that the development of JHA in the Mediterranean has been dependent on state preferences and historical legacies, following a rational-choice-historical institutionalist approach. The paper pursues this analysis and tests whether the Arab revolts constitute a critical juncture whereby EU’s security practices in the Mediterranean was altered through reactive sequencing.  The paper concludes that path-dependency and self-reinforcing patterns characterise EU security practices . It will see how those EU politics of selective JHA engagement impact on actors and geopolitics, in spite of a rapidly changing domestic and regional environment. This will be illustrated through the case study of border management and the EU Sahel Strategy on security and development.