While the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9 of 1989 symbolised a new era of global democracy promotion, the terrorist attacks in the US on 9/11 of 2001 marked the rise of global security concerns. How does this shift impact on democratisation processes around the world as well as democracy promotion efforts of major international donors? Scholars and practitioners report a number of significant changes in foreign policy programmes as well as a range of concerns as to the continued commitment of major donors to the promotion of democracy. Is democracy promotion still an important contributing factor in democratisation? This paper explores such questions by looking at the American foreign aid to the so-called Eurasia region over the last two decades. It aims at eliciting how the changing imperatives, challenges and dilemmas faced by the US government along the so-called “democracy-security” nexus may impact on the processes of democratisation in those “recipient” states that are believed to be more or less authoritarian. Has the pursuit of security objectives - once again - taken priority over concerns for democratisation and if so, does it contribute to supporting or even legitimising increasingly authoritarian regimes despite the donor rhetoric to the contrary? How does this impact on internal politics of authoritarian regimes, especially interactions between the state and domestic civic actors?
