Understanding authoritarian regionalism

This article examines the goals, methods, and implications of regional organizations founded and dominated by autocracies—including the Commonwealth of Independent States (spearheaded by Russia), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (China), Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Venezuela), and Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia). It shows the role that these organizations play in preserving and promoting autocracy and the different tools they use for this purpose: rhetorical endorsement; the redistribution of resources to support weaker authoritarian states; and even military interventions to suppress revolution. The existence of authoritarian regionalism poses an important challenge for Western states and institutions in democracy promotion around the world.Anastassia V. Obydenkova is grateful to the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (Princeton University) and to Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies for supporting her research presented in this article. Her research was cofunded by the Fung Global Fellows Program at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS), Princeton University, and by the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Princeton University.Peer reviewe