Publication

This article reviews the EU’s policies to prevent conflict and respond to governance crises. It explores the difficult combination of democracy assistance and governance conditionality in developing countries. The author illustrates policy dilemmas of the European Commission’s democracy and governance activities in third countries with case studies from Niger, Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire and Fiji. The report argues that incentive-based approaches are more effective than punitive forms of political conditionality. The article concludes with a series of policy recommendations.