| Sumario: | 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
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