Promoting Middle East Democracy

Promoting Middle East Democracy
Author: Mona Yacoubian
Publisher:
Total Pages: 16
Release: 2004
Genre: Democratization
ISBN:

Since the end of the Cold War, European security concerns have focused increasingly on the potential for instability on Europe's southern flank. In 1995, the European Union developed a framework for cooperation with the southern Mediterranean nations. These efforts have included some relatively ineffective programs to promote democracy in the region. In the aftermath of 9/11, the goal of encouraging the development of Middle East democracy has acquired greater urgency, not least in the eyes of the United States, which has bolstered its own efforts to spur democratic reform.

The European Union and the Arab Spring

The European Union and the Arab Spring
Author: Joel Peters
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2012
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0739174452

The European Union and the Arab Spring: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East, edited by Joel Peters, analyzes the response of the European Union to recent uprisings in the Middle East. The past year has witnessed a wave of popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East which the Western media dubbed "the Arab Spring." Demanding greater freedoms, political reform, and human rights, the protesters swept away many of the region's authoritarian autocratic regimes. The events of the Arab Spring have been truly historic. They led to profound changes in the domestic order of Middle Eastern states and societies and impacted the international politics of the region. Additionally, these events necessitate a comprehensive reappraisal by the United States and most notably by the EU in their relations with the states and peoples of the region. This timely collection brings together nine leading authorities on European foreign policy and the Middle East, and investigates three central questions: What role did the European Union play in promoting democracy and human rights in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East? How did the EU respond to the uprisings of the Arab street? What challenges is Europe now facing in its relations with the region? Peters' The European Union and the Arab Spring is at the forefront of scholarship on this historic socio-political shift in the Middle East and its wider implications for the West.

Promoting Middle East Democracy

Promoting Middle East Democracy
Author: Mona Yacoubian
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 16
Release: 2008-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781422310472

European security concerns have focused increasingly on the potential for instability on Europe¿s southern flank. In 1995, the European Union developed a framework for cooperation with the southern Mediterranean nations. In the aftermath of 9/11, the goal of encouraging the development of Middle East democracy has acquired greater urgency, not least in the eyes of the U.S., which has bolstered its own efforts to spur democratic reform. It will be important to assess the effectiveness of other democracy-promotion activities, including those undertaken by European counterparts. This report seeks to inform discussion in U.S. policymaking circles by offering an assessment of multilateral European democracy-promotion efforts in the Middle East.

Uncharted Journey

Uncharted Journey
Author: Thomas Carothers
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2010-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0870032860

The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).

Democratisation against Democracy

Democratisation against Democracy
Author: Andrea Teti
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2020-01-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030338835

This book explains why the EU is not a ‘normative actor’ in the Southern Mediterranean, and how and why EU democracy promotion fails. Drawing on a combination of discourse analysis of EU policy documents and evidence from opinion polls showing ‘what the people want’, the book shows EU policy fails because the EU promotes a conception of democracy which people do not share. Likewise, the EU’s strategies for economic development are misconceived because they do not reflect the people’s preferences for greater social justice and reducing inequalities. This double failure highlights a paradox of EU democracy promotion: while nominally emancipatory, it de facto undermines the very transitions to democracy and inclusive development it aims to pursue.

The European Union and the Promotion of Democracy

The European Union and the Promotion of Democracy
Author: Richard Youngs
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2002-01-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191529281

This book assesses European Union policies aimed at encouraging democratization in East Asia and the North African and Middle Eastern States within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership - these two regions being the source of some of the strongest conceptual challenges to 'Western' liberal democracy since the end of the cold war. The book addresses theoretical debates over the international dimensions of political change and the EU's characteristics as an international actor. The factors both driving and inhibiting European democracy promotion policies are explored. The book outlines the EU's distinctive bottom-up philosophy, aimed at constructing the socio-economic and ideational foundations for political liberalization, but argues that the EU has in practice failed to develop a fully comprehensive and coherent democracy promotion strategy.