Between Security and Democracy Support: the EU’s Evolving Foreign Policy Engagement with Armenia

This volume offers a critical analysis of the European Union's complex and contested democracy advocacy and democratic practices in its Eastern and Southern Neighborhoods. Drawing on extensive empirical research developed within the SHAPEDEM-EU project, it focuses on six case studies (Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia), examining how the EU's democratic commitments are articulated, contested, and implemented in different contexts across the neighborhood. Although democracy advocacy is officially considered a pillar of EU foreign policy, this volume discusses the persistent gap between rhetoric and practical implementation. Combining discourse analysis with an investigation of policy instruments, it highlights how democracy is both narrated and implemented by the EU, revealing the tension between the EU's stated normative aspirations and its interests.