American and European Responses to the Arab Spring: What’s the Big Idea?

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In The Media

American and European Responses to the Arab Spring: What’s the Big Idea?

Given the economic problems facing both sides of the Atlantic, Europe and the United States can best support democratic transitions in Arab countries through enhanced trade agreements that improve market access and maximize job-promoting reforms.

By Uri Dadush and Michele Dunne

Published on Sep 1, 2011

Source: Washington Quarterly

American and European Responses to the Arab SpringHow can Europe and the United States support democratic transitions in a way that is acceptable to the Arab countries, effective in inducing genuine change, and affordable at a time when both continents are confronting fiscal crises? The best instruments available are enhanced trade agreements that not only promote market access, but even more importantly maximize competitiveness-enhancing and job-promoting reforms in the Arab countries. The pre-uprising Western Policies—pressing recalcitrant Arab leaders to undertake top-down political reforms while building civil society capacity to generate bottom-up demand—have been overtaken by events in at least a significant minority of countries. There is now an explicit commitment to democratize, deeply-rooted in the general will of the people. The question is not whether, but how to do it.

Analogous to the process that successfully drew the formerly planned economies of Eastern Europe to liberal democracy, what is needed is a new and compelling vision for closer and more equitable economic relations both among Arab countries and between them and the trans-Atlantic community. Reflecting the global interest in successful transitions, the initiative should also mobilize assistance from large oil-importing countries outside of Europe and the United States. It should also draw on help from Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States which, though clearly ambivalent about the democratic transitions in their Arab neighbors, have a vital interest in their growth and stability. To these ends, new trade agreements should be far deeper and more comprehensive than those currently in force and contain many of the elements included in Eastern European countries’ accession agreements, including a bold multi-year trade assistance initiative designed to bolster competitiveness and the role of the private sector in the Arab countries.

About the Authors

Uri Dadush

Former Senior Associate, International Economics Program

Dadush was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He focuses on trends in the global economy and is currently tracking developments in the eurozone crisis.

Michele Dunne

Former Nonresident Scholar, Middle East Program

Michele Dunne was a nonresident scholar in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Political Reform Economy Foreign Policy North America United States Middle East North Africa Egypt Libya Tunisia Western Europe

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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