This volume brings together some of the most recent scholarship on government and civil society. It examines the axis of the relationship between national governments and civil society organisations (NGOs) by highlighting commonalities as well as differences among four key regions in the world. Using the stability vs. instability framework, the book explores a range of pertinent issues, including human rights, development, foreign policy, state-building, regime change, governance frameworks, wars and civil liberties. It studies diverse situations, from those entailing comprehensive cooperation to those involving politically contentious and revolutionary activities.

Raffaele Marchetti is Senior Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and the School of Government at LUISS, Rome, Italy. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and his research interests concern global politics and transnational civil society. He also acts as an external expert for the European Commission and other public and private institutions on issues of governance, public policies, NGOs and security. In 2015, he produced one of the first MOOCs on IR for Iversity. In the past, he was rapporteur for the European Commission on Civil Society in Global Governance, and received the Lawrence S. Finkelstein Award from the International Studies Association (ISA). Among his publications are Global Strategic Engagement: State and Non-state Actors in Global Governance (2016); Partnerships in International Policy-Making: Civil Society and Public Institutions in European and Global Affairs (edited, 2016); Contemporary Political Agency (co-edited with B. Maiguashca, 2013); Global Democracy (co-edited with D. Archibugi and M. Koenig-Archibugi, 2011); Civil Society, Ethnic Conflicts, and the Politicization of Human Rights (co-edited with N. Tocci, 2011); Conflict Society and Peacebuilding (co-edited with N. Tocci, 2011); and Global Democracy: For and Against (2008).

1. Dynamics of Interaction between Governments and Civil Society Organizations Part I: AFRICA 2. African Uprisings, Labour and Ideology in an Era of Renewed Economic Crisis: The Case of South Africa 3. Cooperation, Competition or Confusion? International Donors, the State, and Women Civil Society Organisations in Burundi and Liberia 4. A Multi-Stakeholder Governance Framework for Improved Value Chain Support Policies: The Case of Ghana Part II: ASIA 5. The Relationship between NGOs and Think Tanks with Government in China 6. India Civil Society: Beyond the Cooperation-Competition Binary 7. The NGO-Government Relations in Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities Part III: EUROPE 8. The Third Sector Entering The First: Cooperation and Competition of Civil Society, State and Oligarchs after Euromaidan in Ukraine 9. Government-Civil Society Synergy in Italian Foreign Policy 10. Local Struggles and Global Rebounds. Civil Society vs. Political Authorities in Romania Part IV: MIDDLE EAST and NORTH AFRICA 11. Women's Rights and NGOs in the Post-Uprisings Egypt 12. Confrontation Co-Optation and Cooperation: Civil Society in Post-War Lebanon 13. The Children of the Egyptian Revolution: From Contentious Politics to the Corrosion of Civility