EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring - (Governance and Limited Statehood) by Vera Van Hüllen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The author explores the practice and effects of the European Union's democracy promotion efforts vis-à-vis its authoritarian neighbours in the Middle East and North Africa. She argues that the same set of factors facilitated both international cooperation of authoritarian regimes on democracy promotion and their persistence during the Arab Spring.

Review Quotes

"van Hüllen's book is an insightful and well-documented contribution that puts EU democracy promotion 'in context' across time and space. Besides the rich and detailed empirical investigation in the seven chapters of the book, the author lays the groundwork for further theoretical debates on the limits, conditions, and paradoxes of cooperation on democracy. Scholars from political science and comparative politics will find the book very useful as a timely account that combines lessons of the past with prospective challenges." (Iole Fontana, The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 23 (1-2), October, 2017)

About the Author

Vera van Hüllen is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 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. Börzel, 2015).