We witnessed sporadic appeals of theoreticians to understand security beyond military deterministic approach even during the Cold War. However, they acquired a real momentum only in its aftermath. The Mediterranean has always occupied an important geopolitical and military strategic position, although its security has recently become crucially related to non-military threats, such as socio-economic, environmental and demographic ones. Other important threats in this area are terrorism and international organized crime. The authors accomplished a brief theoretical conceptualization of the above-mentioned threats and analysed them by exploring the concrete data pertaining to the Mediterranean. The latter faces unfavourable economic, social, and consequently political developments; the degradation of environment and several threats stemming from it: rising air temperatures and see levels, polluted rivers with less water, depletion of natural resources (oil, gas, fish ...), frequent extreme natural phenomena; unfavourable demographic trends and a lot of legal and illegal migrations; terrorist activity that is uniquely high in global terms: the quantity of terrorist groups, attacks, victims and material cost; and intensive international criminal activity where Mediterranean is a final destination and a route for trafficking arms, counterfeited commodities, drugs, cigarettes, people, human organs and archaeological items. The cumulative effects of individual threats and their mutual reinforcements represent a huge security challenge for the Mediterranean.
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