Introduction

This chapter sets out the volume’s rationale and structure. The book examines the mismatch between the EU’s supply of policy in its Southern Neighbourhood and the demand for change by citizens in four countries—Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia—which have been at the forefront of the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood policies and of the 2010–11 Arab Uprisings. The book presents an innovative pairing of EU policy and practice, matching Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on the one hand and quantitative public opinion data from surveys on the other. This approach allows the volume to map the mismatch between what citizens of Southern Mediterranean Countries (SMCs) want and what the EU is willing to give. Amongst other things, this mapping reveals how it has been possible for EU policy to remain entrenched in a failing framework and how such policy efforts contribute to the retrenchment rather than to resolution of the structural causes of the Arab Uprisings.