European Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia: On the road to faulure or success?

Abstract: Encouraged by its success with the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, the EU has developed its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This paper aims to analyze in the case of Armenia the potential effectiveness of the ENP in democracy promotion in post-communist states and to further test the applicability of the international socialization framework to democracy promotion studies. The paper classifies the strategies of the ENP by analysing ENP documentation. To identify and classify the domestic conditions, this paper traces the domestic political and
economic situation at the time of ENP enforcement and examines international reports for balanced assessment of the country’s political situation. The findings indicate that the strategies of the ENP in Armenia do not correspond to the domestic conditions and are insufficient for successful democracy promotion. The paper shows that the theoretical framework can be applied to democracy promotion studies increasing their predictive value and opportunities for generalization.

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