Roles of the European Union in the regions of North Africa and Near East. Methodological aspects

The regions of North Africa and Near East occupy very important position in international relationships. Geopolitical situation, abundance of natural resources, the Arabian-Israeli conflict unresolved since 1948 as well as other challenges and risks for broadly meant international safety, generated in this area, attract the attention of many external actors. One of them is the European Union, which is vitally interested in stability and development of this region. In the paper methodological aspects of the dissertation, which has been published in the form of book titles Role Unii Europejskiej w regionie Afryki Pólnocnej i Bliskiego Wschodu [Roles of the European Union in the regions of North Africa and Near East] (Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2010, pp. 353) have been shown. In this paper a research subject has been pointed out, which is developed in the dissertation, as well as the aim of the study and reasons for choosing this theme. Then the assumptions, research questions and hypotheses, which have raised in the dissertation, as well as the applied research methods are discussed. Also the reasons for choosing theories of international roles to analyse the influences of the European Union in the regions of North Africa and Near East have been set out. In a further section of the paper the structure of the study and the conclusions of the research made have been discussed.