What does it mean to promote "transitions to democracy" in the Middle East? How have North American, European, and multilateral projects advanced human rights, authoritarian retrenchment, or Western domination? Political Aid and Arab Activism examines transnational programs in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, the exceptional cases of Palestine and Iraq, and the Arab region at large during two tumultuous decades. To understand the controversial and contraadictory effects of pGlitical aid, Sheila Carapico analyzes discursive and professional practices in four key subfields: the rule of law, electoral design and monitoring, women's political empowerment, and civil society. From the institutional arrangements for extraordinary underrtakings such as Saddam Hussein's trial or Palestinian elections to routine templates for national women's machineries or NGO nettworks, her research explores the paradoxes and jurisdictional disputes confronted by Arab activists for justice, representation, and "nonngovernmental" agency.--