European Neighbourhood Policy and Migration

This study positions the September 2001 attacks as a watershed in the modern history of terrorism, but argues that the roots of contemporary jihadist violence extend much further back — to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I and the subsequent colonial interventions that reshaped the political geography of the Middle East.

The collapse of the caliphate and the imposition of European-drawn borders on diverse and often hostile populations created structural conditions of grievance and instability that successive generations of extremist movements have exploited.

The analysis traces a direct intellectual and organisational lineage from early pan-Islamist movements to the rise of al-Qaeda and the subsequent proliferation of affiliated groups, positioning 9/11 not as a rupture but as a culmination of this longer trajectory.

A key argument of the study is that 9/11 marked the definitive transition from conventional terrorism to asymmetric and proxy warfare — with non-state actors demonstrating the capacity to project strategic force at a scale previously associated only with nation-states.

The implications for European neighbourhood policy are examined in detail, with particular attention to the southern Mediterranean and the challenge of integrating conflict-affected states into frameworks of governance, security cooperation and economic development.

The study concludes with recommendations for a European Neighbourhood Policy recalibrated to address the structural drivers of instability — poverty, exclusion, and governance failure — while maintaining robust security cooperation with partner states.