Democracy Support or Authoritarian Enabling? The Impact and Perceptions of Non-EU Actors in Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia

SHARPEDEM-EU publication 45

Samuele Carlo Abrami (CIDOB), Inés Arco Escriche (CIDOB), Saden Al Ashkar (AUB), Vladimir Blaiotta (IAI), Moussa Bourekba (CIDOB), Giulia Daga (IAI), Akram Ezzamouri (IAI), Karim Makdisi (AUB), Zouhour Ouamara (KADEM), Gabriel Reyes Leguen (CIDOB), Fabian Schöppner (JLU), Elena Ventura (CEF).

This report investigates the role of non-EU external actors in shaping democratic and authoritarian trajectories in three countries of the EU Southern Neighbourhood: Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia. The analysis focuses on the discursive and behavioural practices of eight key actors – China, the Council of Europe, Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the League of Arab States, Qatar, the United Nations, and the United States – and examines how these practices have influenced political developments in the three case countries between 2010 and 2024. Rather than assuming a binary divide between democracy promotion and autocracy support, the report situates non-EU external actors’ engagement within a broader regional context marked by conflict, power competition, and the dynamics of democratisation and autocratisation. It also connects these practices to local perceptions, drawing on fieldwork and survey data to assess how external influence is understood and experienced by different communities of practice in Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia.