The EU as a realist actor in normative clothes: EU democracy promotion in Lebanon and the European Neighbourhood Policy

Abstract

The article takes recent research on the difficulties for the EU in successfully promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as its point of departure, with a specific focus on the European Neighbourhood Policy EU-Lebanon Action Plan. It is shown that, in spite of the fact that Lebanon does not present the same authoritarian institutions and character as most of the other countries in the region, the EU seems to have difficulties dealing with the political realities of Lebanon. This has to do with its consociational system and the existence of political elites in Lebanon, who see avoiding another breakdown of the political system as the decisive political issue. In addition, the existence of a 'dual power' situation, where two sources of authority are competing for power and legitimacy, constructs a Lebanese reality which the EU chooses to address by neglecting its own normative, democracy promotion ambitions. The article concludes that the vagueness and inconsistency of EU policies in Lebanon cannot only be explained by tactical considerations, but also imply that the EU pursues a realist agenda: in other words it is a realist actor dressed in normative clothes.

The European Union and neoliberal governmentality: Twinning in Tunisia and Egypt

“…A number of studies have indicated the primacy of economic considerations in EU bilateral and regional exchanges with the Arab countries, such as trade relations and energy exports from the region (Hollis, 2012;Mettwally, 2004;Wood, 2009). The EU is said to have supported authoritarian regimes to secure its neoliberal economic interests and cooperated with market-oriented civil society actors to expand the scope of its economic activities (MacKenzie et al, 2013;Seeberg, 2009). It has also been noted how EU economic development policies through investment, business and aid provision have intensified imbalanced economic and trade relations between EU member states and Arab countries and created an asymmetric dependency to the detriment of the latter (Attinà, 2003;Dodini and Fantini, 2006).…”

The Arab Uprisings and the EU's Migration Policies—The Cases of Egypt, Libya, and Syria

“…Hezbollah is able, partly because of its strong backing from Iran and Syria, to maintain what I elsewhere have termed a "dual power" situation in Lebanon. 52 The Iranian influence can be seen in the recent complex regional situation as a double-edged sword for Syria, since on one side the Iranian ally in principle gives Syria strength. The tragic development in Syria in 2011-2012 definitely results in Syria maintaining a picture of itself as one of the radical states in the MENA region.…”

Constructive Criticism: Shaming, Incentives, and Human Rights Reforms

“…This is very clearly expressed in the post‐Arab Spring “more for more” approach (Bicchi ), and it is a consistent feature of the ENP (Börzel, Dandashly, and Risse ). While the assumption that the EU's power can be exerted in such a surgical way is theoretically sound (Del Sarto and Schumacher ; Seeberg ; Way and Levitsky ), empirical research gives reason to question the assumption that more aid and more shaming would automatically yield more HR protection. As discussed in previous sections, the effect of shaming seems to be conditional (Franklin ; Murdie and Davis ), and aid could have a positive or a negative effect on HR, or no effect at all (Djankov, Montalvo, and Reynal‐Querol ; Fielding ; Peksen ).…”