The chapter, The International Dimension of 'Arab Authoritarianism', argues that authoritarian power structures in the MENA, despite their violent local manifestations, are inherently transregional and global. The argumentation builds on authoritarian practices and their spatial and temporal articulations and demonstrates the fundamental mismatch between the involved actors on the one side and the territorial boundaries implicit to notions of “Arab authoritarianism” on the other.
The chapter illustrates this through four case-studies: debt-funded renewable energy megaprojects in Morocco, EU-Tunisian collaboration in the fight against migration, “Western”-supported efforts at Arab-Israeli normalization in Jordan, and US and European “democracy promotion” initiatives. Together, these examples show how neoliberal continuities in efforts at transitioning to post-fossil politics, structural racism and the violent containment of migration, Israeli settler colonialism and its role within US imperialism, and liberalism’s unabated claims to moral superiority are integral to the reproduction of authoritarian rule, highlighting the need for a more internationalized understanding of authoritarianism in the region.