International civil society support is facing increasing restrictions in a growing number of countries around the world. Jonas Wolff and Annika Elena Poppe analyze the political controversy over this phenomenon of “closing space”. In looking at the global debate in the UN Human Rights Council and at four cases (Ethiopia, India, Egypt, and Bolivia), they assess the normative claims brought forward in order to either justify or reject restrictions on external civil society support. The authors show that governments in the Global South have good reasons to be concerned about the foreign funding of domestic civil society groups and argue that a promising response to the spread of closing spaces cannot but include a serious engagement with these concerns. Dr Jonas Wolff is Head of PRIF‘s department “Governance and Societal Peace” and member of the Executive Board. His research focuses on the transformation of political orders, contentious politics, international democracy promotion, and Latin American politics. Dr Annika Elena Poppe is Project Director and Research Fellow at PRIF‘s department “Governance and Societal Peace”. In her research, she focuses on international democracy promotion, normative and political change, US foreign policy, and the US-Egyptian relationship. The authors are members of the German Research Network “External Democracy Promotion“.weiterlesen