ABOUT THE WEBINAR

If you register for and attend a Burkle Center virtual event, you will not be seen or heard via video or audio. We will be live-streaming this event on the Burkle Center’s YouTube page. The YouTube livestream will be available below at the start of the event.

ABOUT THE BOOK

For nearly two decades, the United States devoted more than $2 billion towards democracy promotion in the Middle East with seemingly little impact. To understand the limited impact of this aid and the decision of authoritarian regimes to allow democracy programs whose ultimate aim is to challenge the power of such regimes, Marketing Democracy examines the construction and practice of democracy aid in Washington DC and in Egypt and Morocco, two of the highest recipients of US democracy aid in the region. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, novel new data on the professional histories of democracy promoters, archival research and recently declassified government documents, Erin A. Snider focuses on the voices and practices of those engaged in democracy work over the last three decades to offer a new framework for understanding the political economy of democracy aid. Her research shows how democracy aid can work to strengthen rather than challenge authoritarian regimes. Marketing Democracy fundamentally challenges scholars to rethink how we study democracy aid and how the ideas of democracy that underlie democracy programs come to reflect the views of donors and recipient regimes rather than indigenous demand.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Dr. Erin A. Snider is currently a senior advisor and consultant for projects on democratic erosion and openings with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State. She was recently a professor at Texas A&M University and a Carnegie Fellow with New America. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, a Fulbright scholar in Egypt, and a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge. Before returning to academia, she worked for several years on development and humanitarian demining with the U.S. Department of State and the UN Association of the USA (UN-USA). Her first book, Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Aid in the Middle East was published with Cambridge University Press. Other research has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Globalizations, PS: Political Science and Politics, and Middle East Policy, among other outlets. Her current book in progress examines the politics of transitional aid to the Arab world since the 2011 uprisings and other research explores the political economy of sustainable energy in the Middle East and the ethics of international aid for democracy. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Middle East Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR 

Margaret Peters is Associate Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Chair of the Global Studies major at UCLA. She is also a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research on the political economy of migration. She is currently working on a book project on how the process of forced displacement affects migrants’ sense of dignity and how these dignity concerns affect decisions of whether to move from the crisis zone, where to move, and when to return. She is additionally writing a book on how dictators use migration, including forced migration, to remain in power. Her award-winning book, Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization, argues that the increased ability of firms to produce anywhere in the world combined with growing international competition due to lowered trade barriers has led to greater limits on immigration, as businesses no longer see a need to support open immigration at home.

ORDER THE BOOK

Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Aid in the Middle East is available for purchase at Cambridge University Press.

Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, Department of Political Science