The Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition: Tracing the Trajectory of a Unique Format

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the history of the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition – a unique multilateral format established at the 2011 G8 Summit in Deauville, France to help the countries affected by the Arab Awakening navigate through the transition. It identifies the Partnership’s particularities, main objectives, pillars and key phases. The conclusion is drawn that this format stood out because of a regional actors’ participation, a deeper engagement of multilateral institutions and all members’ willingness to cooperate with new partners. The Partnership’s umbrella format allowed to unite stand-alone projects, to increase their legitimacy and cumulative effect. This logic manifested itself clearly under the US and the UK chairmanships (2012–2013) when the members’ interest in the Partnership and expectations were the highest, ensuring a visible progress in all dimensions supported by the Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund under the World Bank trusteeship. However, a dramatic deterioration of the global and regional geopolitical environment in 2014 hindered the intensification of efforts, and the German impulse to reinvigorate the format in 2015 did not last for long. The initial enthusiasm of partners waned, which resulted in a discrete reformatting of the Partnership in 2019, despite the new wave of protests in the Arab world. The Partnership has nonetheless had a positive effect: the Arab countries enjoyed interacting with key donors and multilateral institutions on a regular basis, while the external actors have accumulated a valuable experience of coordinating response to macro-regional challenges. Hypothetically, this experience might still be relevant today but the establishment of a novel and inclusive format with such a clear emphasis on democratic transition in the Arab World is beyond possible.