The interconnection between international organizations (IOs) membership and democratization has become a topic of intense debate. However, the main focus of the literature so far has been on IOs created by democratic states and comprised mostly of democracies, for examples the European Union. In contrast to existing studies, this book focuses on another group of regional IOs, referred to as 'non-democratic IOs' which are organizations founded by autocracies.

How do these newly emerged organizations interrelate and interact with the outside world? How do they counteract and confront the danger of democratization in their own member states and neighboring states? This book aims to address these questions by developing a new theory of authoritarian regionalism, and by combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis to test it. The quantitative analysis uses a large dataset of all regional organizations worldwide for the post-World War II period, with the aim of defining historical trends in development and the modification of regionalism over the last seven decades (1945-2015). Qualitative analysis refines and develops the argument by looking at the case of post-Soviet Eurasia.

The book uncovers a new type of regionalism - 'authoritarian regionalism' and traces its historical roots as well as its implications for modern politics. The book is the first attempt to systematically investigate the functioning and the impact of authoritarian regionalism as a new phenomenon as well as its implications for democratization world-wide. The book contributes to the theory of regionalism, international organizations, studies of autocracies, foreign policy, and democratization world-wide.

About the Author:
Anastassia V. Obydenkova, Senior Research Fellow, Higher School of Economics, National Research University, Moscow, Alexander Libman, Professor of Social Sciences and Eastern European Studies, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich

Anastassia V. Obydenkova is a Co-Director of the research project 'Regionalism and Regional International Organizations in a Fragmented World', co-funded by the Fung Global Fellows Program at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies of Princeton University and by the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Princeton University. She is also a leading research fellow at the National Research University's Higher School of Economics, and a research affiliate at the Institute for Economic Analysis of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research. Her previous publications include Causes and Consequences of Democratization (with A Libman, Routledge, 2015).

Alexander Libman is Professor of Social Sciences and East European Studies at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. His research focuses on Russian subnational politics, regional organizations in the post-Soviet Eurasia, historical legacies in post-Communist politics and comparative authoritarianism. He was awarded the Knut Wicksell Prize from the European Public Choice Society, Gordon Tullock Prize from the Public Choice Society and Ovsievich Memorial Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences. His previous publications include Causes and Consequences of Democratization (with A Obydenkova, Routledge, 2015).