President Morsi seems more interested in consolidating the power of the Muslim Brotherhood than in governing.
Both the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian Opposition Act as If They’re Playing a Zero-Sum Game
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Egypt
The Roundabout Road Back To Tahrir
Given the thousands of people returning to Cairo’s Tahrir Square and growing discontent over the economy, security, and civil liberties, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi may have inadvertently provided his critics with a temporary unifying device: rallying to defend the rule of law.
A New Middle East Agenda for Obama
In his first term, President Barack Obama’s vision for the Middle East failed to materialize. If he wants to make a lasting mark during his second term, he must ensure that U.S. policy in the region is no longer dictated by energy sources, friendly dictators, and Israel.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Dueling Monarchies
The demise of secular autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa has heralded a renaissance for Islamist parties in the region, igniting a rivalry for the hearts and minds of the Sunni world between the Gulf powers of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Although neither country is a bastion of democracy at home, Qatar has proven much more amenable than Saudi Arabia to bolstering democratic Islamist movements abroad.
Staunching Syria’s Wounds
Almost 18 months after the onset of popular democratic protests, the Syrian revolution increasingly resembles a bloody marathon with no clear finish line on the horizon. But as Syrian society slowly disintegrates, non-aligned states from the developing world may show the way forward to a diplomatic resolution.
Can Egypt Chart Its Own Course?
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s bold initiatives on the world stage indicate that the Muslim Brotherhood leader is attempting to pursue a more independent approach to international affairs. By visiting China and Iran before the United States, forcing several high-ranking leaders of Egypt’s U.S.-backed military to retire, and deploying forces within the Sinai, Morsi is boldly challenging the Washington-Tel Aviv-Riyadh axis of power that has defined the Middle East’s order for decades.
Time to Turn the Page on Egypt
The power of the military in Egypt is so strong that many Egyptians, as well as observers around the world, feared that the country’s first-ever presidential vote would result in a stolen election. Instead, the persistently peaceful demonstrators in Tahrir Square received news of a landmark victory for this 7,000-year-old civilization: Egypt finally has a democratically elected, civilian leader.
Review: Tahrir 2011
In the recent documentary Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad & The Politician, three directors present varying perspectives on the Egyptian Uprising and provide a comprehensive overview of what was happening on Tahrir Square, and why. The documentary is divided into three sections: The Good, directed by Tamer Ezzat, The Bad, directed by Ayten Amin, and The Politician, directed by Amr Salama. Executed in a cinematic style, each section includes visuals, live footage of protests, and interviews, as well as considerable wit and sophistication, to tell the story of the Egyptian Spring.
Resurgent Arab Nationalism in Egypt?
The gains of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour Party in the 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, as well as the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi’s first-place showing in the presidential election, demonstrate that Egypt’s Islamists carry widespread support throughout the country. Nonetheless, the surge of enthusiasm for Hamdeen Sabahi, which placed him third in the presidential election (fewer than 5 points behind Morsi), demonstrates the growing strength of Nasserism in post-Mubarak Egypt.
Review: The Journey to Tahrir
The essays in The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest and Social Change in Egypt, 1999-2011 validate Hannah Arendt’s famous quote that “revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.” Journey to Tahrir, edited by Jeannie Sowers, rejects the mainstream media’s often monolithic and melodramatic portrait of a random pro-democracy uprising in Egypt. Instead the contributors meticulously dissect the numerous components that coalesced in November 2011 in a mass social upheaval that brought down the Mubarak regime.