Eu Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring ― International Cooperation and Authoritarianism

Fuelled by the suspicion that the European Union's democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East and North Africa over the past 20 years were not only ineffective but even counterproductive, this book critically reviews the practice and effects of international democracy promotion efforts vis-a-vis authoritarian regimes. How and under which conditions do authoritarian regimes cooperate on democracy promotion efforts by international actors? And what does the Arab Spring tell us about the nature and prospects of these efforts? Following a comprehensive analysis of cooperation on democracy and human rights in Euro-Mediterranean relations since the early 1990s, the author argues that the same set of factors facilitated both the cooperation of authoritarian regimes and their persistence during the Arab Spring. For authoritarian regimes with moderate levels of political liberalization and statehood, cooperation on democracy and human rights became part of their more 'successful' survival strategies.

Vera van Hullen is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Leuphana Universitat Luneburg, Germany. Her research investigates the role of regional organizations in international democracy promotion and regime dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa, in particular in light of the 'Arab Spring'. She recently co-edited the collection Governance Transfer by Regional Organizations: Patching Together a Global Script (with T. Borzel, 2015).