Introduction: EU Democracy Promotion in Its Near (and Further) Abroad Through the Prism of Normative Power Europe

As the introduction to this edited volume, this chapter reiterates the relevance of studying the European Union’s democracy promotion in its near (and further) abroad. It does so by outlining the most fundamental changes to the EU’s democracy promotion agenda – both within and without – in the past 25 years. The chapter further sets the stage for the remainder of the volume by discussing the complexity of defining democracy and democracy promotion, by outlining the book’s theoretical framework (namely Normative Power Europe), and by demarcating its geographic scope (South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia). Finally, the volume’s individual chapters are introduced along conceptual and empirical lines