finalpoliproject

President el-Sisi changed the modern Egyptian political landscape by strengthening the military. Egypt's history of involvement in international conflicts and its strong military presence influenced this. The Arab Spring protests led to the rise of Islamist parties, but the military took over again. Despite this authoritarian rule, the US continues to provide foreign aid to Egypt. The US support for autocratic regimes contradicts its support for democratic movements. The funds provided to Egypt are mainly used for military spending, further consolidating el-Sisi's power. To best understand how President el-Sisi changed the modern Egyptian political landscape, we need to look back to how Egypt developed into the highly militarized state that we see today. After its release from informal British control and monarchism during Nasser's 1952 free office revolution, Egypt has found itself in one of the most politically unstable and violent areas of the world. Headed by a new military dictatorship, controlled by the same junta that caused the 1952 revolution, Egypt began its descent into further militarization. Only four years after its initial conception, Egypt found itself at war with the English, French, and the new nation of Israel over the Suez Canal. Later, still under Gamal Nasser's control, Egypt entered into another international conflict with the North Yemen Civil War. The military leadership, coupled with growing international conflict, grew both the functional and political strength of the Egyptian military, a trend that continues today. To further explore how Egypt's history influenced its current military strength, we interviewed Dr. Jamil Aydin, a UNC professor specializing in modern Middle Eastern history and modern Asian history. Egypt was a hub, a center for Pan-Africanism, Pan-Arabism, and Afro-Asian solidarity. So imagine you're a country that is newly independent, just came out of a long colonial period, and you have very strong war-making claims, helping, for example, helping Algerians in the fight against France, but also helping Palestinians, obviously the military will be very important. With such a strong military presence in both society and the upper level of government, it's no coincidence that military suppression became a useful tactic in crushing civilian resistance. With the rise of the Arab Spring Revolution, Egyptian citizens flooded to Tahrir Square to protest decades of economic struggle, supporting pro-democratic Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood. Once these protests reached a boiling point, then-President Hossein Mubarak sent troops that killed over 840 civilians, according to Amnesty International, prompting the response of then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Protectionism gives way to openness. The reins of commerce pass from the few to the many, and the economy generates jobs for the young. Competitive support for democracy will therefore be based on ensuring financial stability, promoting reform, and integrating competitive markets with each other and the global economy. And we're going to start with Tunisia and Egypt. First we've asked the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to present a plan at next week's G8 summit for what needs to be done to stabilize and modernize the economies of Tunisia and Egypt. Together, we must help them recover from the disruptions of their democratic upheaval. After a brief stint of leadership by Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian military took back the reins that are now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2013. Despite this authoritarian takeover, Egypt has remained one of the largest recipients of American foreign aid, with over $235 million U.S. dollars being approved by President Biden just this November. To get a better understanding of the hypocrisy of American support being given to democratic movements and now to the autocracies that replace them, we turn back to our conversation with Dr. Aded. Over the years, all the top Egyptian generals usually have training in America, including Sisi. And their ties to the U.S. should not be underestimated. That's a very strong tie because of the close kinship with American military aid policies. So in that context, I think what Obama did when there was a massive pro-democracy protest, he kind of encouraged through American military contacts, Egyptian military to help with the transition to democracy. But once the first election was won by Muslim Brotherhood and there was an international reaction of other domestics, then we assume that these inter-European and American contacts might have encouraged Sisi and Egyptian military to then do the coup, which is a very violent one. But it did have the regional and international support from pro-authoritarian governments. After that, we could have hoped or assumed that Egypt will go back to more of a robust democracy. In short, there were hopes during the Arab Spring that Egypt would become a functional, fair democracy. But since al-Sisi's coup took power, America has continued to support the nation, choosing to keep its ally rather than its democratic values. U.S. funds, like most of the Egyptian budget, is directly funneled into military spending, strengthening al-Sisi against further forms of political resistance.