The security of the Middle East and North Africa – the MENA region – has acquired greater salience since the 1990s. However, after a short period of improvement, which continued until the mid of the 1990s, the security structures and dynamics in the MENA region have undergone a period of deterioration. The failure of the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) unleashed a wave of negative attitudes all over the MENA region and has deprived the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) of much of the needed wind to keep sailing. Efforts to improve regional security have been unable to keep up with these developments. Against this background, the purpose of this text is to delineate the southern vision of Mediterranean security. Engaging with the southern vision(s) should help to identify and explain its nature and limits.