This new DIIS Working Paper examines the role of the mild stimulant khat in the economic and political transformation of the independent, yet internationally unrecognized Republic of Somaliland. Rather than seeing khat as a hindrance for nation-state formation and as a developmental problem, the...

After the European Union's eastward enlargement, the new eastern neighbours are now among others, Ukraine and Moldova. They have been torn between adopting a pro-Western course and staying loyal to the traditional alliance with Russia. This dilemma has shaped the path to domestic socio-political...

This working paper provides an analysis of the efforts by the European Union to support democracy building in developing countries. It focuses on the specific question of the legal obligations of, and limits for, the European Union in seeking to further democracy through its policies directed at...

Since the early 1990s promoters of European democracy have sought to further political reform in the Arab world through so-called reform programmes based on notions of equality and local ownership (the ENP, the Barcelona Process, and a host of bilateral reform initiatives).European reform...

For at least the last seven years, Lebanon has been in a deep economic and political crisis that has sparked several mass demonstrations in the heart of Beirut. Every time demonstrations were joined by up to more than a hundred thousand demonstrators with vast participation from the Lebanese...