Dr Dimitris BOURIS, Research Fellow at the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the Natolin (Warsaw) campus of the College of Europe, has just published a chapter entitled "EU-Palestinian Security Cooperation after Oslo: Enforcing Borders, Interdependence and Existing Power Imbalance", in Raffaella DEL SARTO (ed.), Fragmented Borders, Interdependence and External Relations: The Israel-Palestine-European Union Triangle, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 27-45.
The chapter sheds light on EU-Palestinian security co-operation and its impact on the broader EU-Israeli-Palestinian triangle. Following the signing of the Oslo Accords, security became the ‘alpha and omega’ of the state-building project conducted in the Palestinian territories and after the adoption of the Roadmap, the EU deployed two civilian missions on the ground to contribute to Palestinian security sector reform efforts; EUBAM Rafah and EUPOL COPPS. By analyzing the operationalization of these missions, and taking into account issues of power and interdependence, the chapter addresses the impact of the bilateral EU-PA security co-operation on Israel (and vice versa). The political implications are also explored, showing that, intentionally or not, the EU risks enhancing existing borders and power relations that are mainly defined by Israel.
A description of the book and its chapters can be found here.