The extent to which today’s European policies are a continuation of past imperial influence and mandates is significant and multifaceted, manifesting not through formal colonial rule but through enduring structural, economic, and discursive hierarchies, particularly in Europe’s relationship with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other former colonies.

Contemporary European engagement often struggles to escape a neo-colonial framework, even as it officially champions norms like democracy, human rights, and multilateralism.

This continuation can be broadly analyzed across four key dimensions: Geopolitical and State Structure, Economic and Trade Relations, Security and Stability Policies, and Discursive and Normative Power.

Geopolitical and State Structure: The Legacy of Arbitrary Borders and Mandates

The most visible and enduring legacy of European imperialism is the geographical and political structure of many states, especially those created after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire under the League of Nations Mandate System.

• Arbitrary Borders: The Sykes-Picot Agreement and the subsequent mandate divisions (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan) drew artificial boundaries that ignored existing ethnic, religious, and tribal identities and connections. These borders were designed to serve Franco-British interests, consolidating European control over resources and strategic locations.

• Continuation in Conflict and Instability: These arbitrary lines and the deliberate fragmentation of the region into weak, often autocratic states fostered intra-state and inter-state conflicts that persist today. Modern European policy, while not intending to redraw these maps, often engages with these states in a way that reinforces the stability of these colonial-era structures, sometimes at the expense of genuine democratic or socio-political transformation.

• Exported State System: European imperialism exported the Westphalian state system—the modern nation-state model—to a region where it did not naturally evolve. This system, flawed in its application, led to centralized, often repressive state structures, a stark contrast to the prior Ottoman governance. Contemporary European policy often prioritizes the state-centric diplomacy and elite-driven engagement, neglecting grassroots civil society and bottom-up pressures for deeper democratic change.

Economic and Trade Relations: Neo-Mercantilism and Dependence

The economic dimensions of European policy frequently echo the colonial relationship where former metropoles structured economies for their own benefit, fostering dependence.

• Unequal Trade Agreements: The European Union’s (EU) trade agreements, particularly under frameworks like the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), often establish an asymmetrical relationship. These agreements tend to favor European industries by securing access to partner country markets, while MENA and African economies often remain concentrated on exporting raw materials (like oil and gas) or low-value agricultural products, a classic characteristic of a colonial economic model.

• Focus on Energy and Resources: The strategic importance of the MENA region to Europe remains heavily concentrated on energy security (oil and gas). European foreign policy priorities often align with maintaining the stability of regimes that guarantee a smooth flow of these resources, irrespective of their domestic human rights records or democratic credentials. This echoes the colonial focus on resource extraction.

• Financial Leverage and Conditionality: Financial aid, loans, and market access are often tied to political conditionality (governance, migration control, counter-terrorism). While ostensibly promoting 'good governance,' critics argue this represents a form of "normative empire," where Europe attempts to externalize its norms and administrative practices onto neighboring countries, effectively managing their domestic policies from a distance without formal sovereignty.

Security and Stability Policies: Prioritizing European Interests

Modern security cooperation with countries in Europe's "Southern Neighbourhood" frequently reveals a continuation of imperial-era self-interest, prioritizing European security and domestic concerns over the recipient country’s long-term development.

• Migration Management: The most prominent example is the heavy focus on externalizing border control. European states and the EU provide significant funding and technological support to North African countries (e.g., Libya, Tunisia, Morocco) to stop migrants from reaching Europe. This policy effectively turns these non-European states into Europe's border guards, serving European domestic political and security interests while often contributing to human rights abuses against migrants in the transit countries. This is seen by critics as a direct continuation of a logic that uses the periphery to secure the metropole.

• Counter-Terrorism and Realpolitik: Following the Arab Uprisings, European policy shifted from an initial, albeit weak, commitment to "deep democracy" toward a realpolitik focus on stability and counter-terrorism. This often means bolstering authoritarian regimes that promise security cooperation and migration control, replicating the colonial-era practice of supporting local elites who could maintain order and protect European interests.

• Intervention and Military Presence: While large-scale invasions are rare, military and security interventions by individual European powers (notably France in West Africa) often have a perceived imperial shadow, driven by a mixture of resource security, counter-terrorism, and a desire to retain influence in former colonial spheres.

Discursive and Normative Power: The "Idea of Europe" as Superior

The less tangible, but equally powerful, continuation of imperial influence lies in the discursive framework through which Europe views and engages with its neighbors.

• Orientalism and the 'Civilizing Mission': Echoes of Orientalism—the Western construction of the 'East' as fundamentally different, exotic, and deficient—still permeate European policy documents and public narratives. Europe is often implicitly or explicitly framed as the holder of universal norms (democracy, secularism, human rights) that must be exported or imposed upon the 'less civilized' or 'unstable' periphery.

• The EU as a Model: The EU frequently positions itself as a "normative power" and a model for regional integration and peace. While this self-conception is benign in intent, the attempt to universalize the European model and apply it to vastly different historical and political contexts can be seen as a form of cultural imperialism, dismissing indigenous political forms or alternative pathways to modernity.

• Paternalism and 'Disempowerment': Even when genuinely attempting to aid development or democratization, European policies are often criticized for their paternalistic tone, treating partners as passive recipients of European wisdom or as perpetual dependencies. This reinforces a North-South hierarchy, where the agency and self-determination of the local populations are implicitly devalued.

Today’s European policies are not a simple re-establishment of direct colonial control, but they are powerfully and persistently shaped by the structural inheritance and mental frameworks of past imperialism and the mandates. The relationship is one of asymmetrical interdependence, where the former colonial powers and the EU bloc collectively leverage their institutional, economic, and normative power to pursue their strategic interests—chiefly stability, security, and resource access—in neighboring regions. This often results in policies that reinforce post-colonial hierarchies, support the longevity of colonial-era political structures, and impose European conditionalities that limit the sovereign economic and political choices of the former colonies. The challenge for Europe is to move beyond the language of "soft power" and genuinely confront its colonial legacy, allowing for a relationship based on true equality, shared sovereignty, and mutual respect for diverse political trajectories.