The impact of external actors on the distribution of power in the Middle East: the case of Egypt

Mapping Civil Society in the Middle East: The Cases of Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey

“…13 International aid can produce the consequence of increased political control in the aid-receiving country because of donor government fluctuation between security and human rights concerns. 14 The impact of aid may be limited by the fact that donors tend to establish ties with organisations that bear a resemblance to those at home and speak to donor priorities but may not be relevant in the aid-receiving countries. 15 These discussions can be taken one step further if we emphasise the indeterminate nature of the boundary between state and civil society.…”

EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring

“…Following a cooperative approach in line with its global democracy promotion policy, the EU has always sought the active engagement of targeted regimes in implementing its instruments of political dialogue, democracy assistance, and political conditionality in the Middle East and North Africa. The EU has often been criticized for its failure to advance democracy and human rights in the region with charges ranging from hypocrisy to incapacity and from ineffective to counterproductive measures (Börzel and van Hüllen 2014;Durac 2009;Durac and Cavatorta 2009;Youngs 2009). Comparing patterns of cooperation with the resilience of incumbent rulers in early 2011 actually raises the suspicion that the EU's efforts may have insulated its Arab neighbours from the full force of the uprisings.…”

“…President Mubarak initiated a constitutional reform that would allow for the first direct multi-candidate presidential elections, which was celebrated by the international community as a step in the right direction. The Egyptian Movement for Change criticized the reform as flawed (Durac 2009). The new provision was obviously not designed to encourage a free and fair competition for the presidency, as the process for the nomination of candidates would guarantee the dominance of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).…”

Politics of critique: Understanding gender in contemporary Middle East

“…Security concerns meant that significant funding went to bolstering the military capacities of the states. Yet it was the same capacity that ended up reproducing repressive regimes, which democracy promotion aimed to alleviate by supporting political pluralism through civil society organizations (Burnell and Schlumberger, 2010;Durac, 2009). Furthermore, these activities linked with only a limited range of organizations, resembling Western counterparts (Hawthorne, 2004;Altan-Olcay and Icduygu, 2012).…”