Governing Revolt: EU–North African Relations after the ‘Arab Spring’ Uprisings

Abstract

This article focuses on under-discussed external dimensions of the 2010-11 North African uprisings. In particular, it considers European Union liberal governancein the form of economic 'aid', and 'technical' and transitional 'assistance'-as both a form of intervention and a juridical-institutional force that has informed post-uprising states' development. This article also considers ways in which the EU's role in a broader security regime, consolidated in the post-9/11 period, overlaps with and reinforces the liberal-governance imperatives of 'stability' and 'development'. It concludes by briefly assessing forms of resistance to liberal governance that have emerged in Egypt and Tunisia.

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