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The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to keep the union secured and stable. The paper also assesses to what extent the EU succeeds to promote democracy in Egypt.

The EU pursues its policy through a series of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with Egypt aiming at positioning their relations in a strategic context. The research adopted different approaches as descriptive and analytical ones.

Following the Arab uprisings, the EU was caught by surprise and announced a paradigm shift in its relations and introduced a set of policies to foster democracy promotion that witnessed some successes but with extremely modest results in some areas compared to the costs of the process. The EU succeeded in important reforms in trade liberalization while it did not bring clear changes in the political arena in Egypt.

The findings of this paper convey that the Arab uprisings were a wake-up call for the EU. It was the right time for the EU to conduct such a strategic and sincere reflection based on the role it wants to play in the changing region. In addition, findings prove that the EU’s response to revolutionary events has been weak and hesitant, and the EU has not an effective role in promoting democracy in Egypt.

Is the need for stability pre-empting the need for democratic values? How can the EU cope with two contradictory security requirements: the need to promote democratic norms and to secure geostrategic interests? This paper takes on the security-democracy dilemma in a complex way that transcends the realpolitik frame overshadowing the analysis of the EU’s policy orientation in the Southern Mediterranean while considering its normative role as a fig leaf for security interests.

This paper investigates the EU’s foreign policy orientation reflected in the ENP in terms of the two logics of action of consequentialism and appropriateness. Tracing changes at the policy level over time between 2011 and 2015, the paper zooms into the implementation of the “new” ENP in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to highlight additional variation across countries.

Building on a document analysis of the official declarations for the policy-making level and of ENP action plans for the implementation level, the paper argues that local political dynamics and the level of the EU’s threat perception shape the EU’s response to the partner countries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the USA seeks to promote its interests in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in the context of Taiwan’s unique political status and its democratic system.

A narrative analysis examines the recent history of Taiwan’s democratic development and USA responses to it.

The USA has responded in various ways to the dilemma of respecting the outcomes of elections in friendly democracies while protecting its own interests in peace and security. This was easy during the Ma Ying-jeou administration (2008-2016) but it is likely to become more difficult following Taiwan’s presidential election in January 2016.

This study draws on personal experience and an in-depth understanding of Taiwan politics and US diplomacy.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

It is well established in political theory that democracy promotes inclusive citizenship most especially politically – the right to vote and be voted for. This thesis is predicated upon the assumption that democracy is basically a representative government where all identities and interests are accommodated and/or tolerated in the politics and policy processes of their society. This chapter challenges the foundation of this assumption, using the Nigerian legislature's experience under the Fourth Republic (1999–2007), where the democratization process has failed to bring about substantial increase not only in women's numerical representation in parliament, but also in their ability to improve their participation in the politics and policy processes particularly those that advance women's cause. The central argument of the chapter is that for democracy to engender active representation of women in the politics and policy process of their environment will be largely dependent on women's numerical strength and their mode of ascension to power – their politics or affirmative action. Wherever the latter prevails, only passive, not active representation, will be prompted, as has so far been the case in Nigeria and most other African countries. This equates democratization of disempowerment for women.

The purpose of this paper is to make sense of the slow and frustrating process of democratization in Hong Kong through understanding the pan-democrats’ struggle for realizing universal suffrage. It aims to offer possible explanations for the current political impasse between Hong Kong and mainland China over the issue of universal suffrage.

This paper seeks to construct a triangular model of institutional constraint, clashing visions of democracy and mutual political distrust for understanding the pan-democrats’ struggle for realizing universal suffrage in Hong Kong since the 1980s, the nature of current political predicament they found themselves in and the current political impasse between the pan-democrats and Beijing.

The dilemma facing Hong Kong’s pan-democrats and Beijing’s leadership is attributed to the institutional constraints of Basic Law on Hong Kong’s system of governance, the clashing visions of Beijing-led Chinese-style democracy and Western-style liberal democracy as advocated by the pan-democrats and the mutual political distrust between the two parties. The findings suggest that this triangular model will remain relevant in understanding the political predicament of the pan-democrats under Chinese rule and the political impasse between Hong Kong and mainland China over universal suffrage for the coming decades.

This paper provides a new interpretation of the current political impasse between Hong Kong and mainland China over the issue of universal suffrage. It offers new insights into the nature of current political predicament the pan-democrats found themselves in amidst their fight for realizing universal suffrage since the 1980s by constructing a triangular model of institutional constraints, clashing visions of democracy and mutual political distrust.