This paper offers a comparative overview of both country and issue-based case studies prepared for the Power2Youth Work Package dedicated to analysis of policy/institutional factors of youth exclusion/inclusion in the South East of the Mediterranean. It begins by clarifying the theoretical and methodological presuppositions mobilized to address the concepts of ‘youth’ and public action. Next it reviews the four sectoral policy fields selected for the research, namely: employment, migration, family and spatial planning. Finally, it analyses governmental techniques at work in the six country case studies (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Turkey).