Egypt’s civil society crackdown: A test for US-Egyptian relations

By Sarah E. Yerkes. The relationship between the United States and Egypt has reached one of its lowest points in decades following a series of steps by the Egyptian military to prevent the operation of both international and domestic civil society organisations. Culminating in a raid on the offices of several NGOs on December 29, the Egyptian military regime (known as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF) has initiated a harsh crackdown on Egyptian human rights organisations as well as US and European NGOs operating in Egypt. This crackdown is a test for the US-Egyptian relationship. Will the United States stand by as the SCAF rolls back Egyptian rights of association and expression? Or will the US government use the large weapon in its arsenal – $1.3 billion in military aid – to show the SCAF that its behavior has consequences

American Plans to Build Democracy in the Middle East After 9/11: the Case of Iraq

The “Freedom Agenda” of President George W. Bush for the Middle East assumed that the liberation of Iraq from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the start of political change would trigger the process of democratization of the entire region. Encouraged by financial and economic support, Arab countries should have been willing to implement political and educational support, which would lead to the creation of civil society and grassroots political changes initiated by society itself. A number of mistakes made by the Bush administration in Iraq has not only caused the mission of the democratization of Iraq to be a failure, but also influenced the situation that today Iraq is closer to being a failed state than a democracy

U.S. Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: More and Less Than Meets the Eye

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

US Democracy Promotion from Bush to Obama. EUSpring Working Paper No. 1, 15 April 2015

Throughout the twenty-first century the United States (U.S.) has attempted to balance its traditional national security interests, whilst also seeking to promote the long-term transformation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) towards democracy based on liberal values. With the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks providing a catalyst for policy change, the U.S. has moved away from its twentieth-century policy of pursuing a regional status quo and instinctively balking at political change. Yet, the U.S. has not abandoned its reliance on autocratic regimes that cooperate on more immediate national security interests such as counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and the free-flow energy sources into the global market. Rather, U.S. democracy promotion in the MENA has become incremental by design and is characterized by its gradualist and often-collaborative nature. U.S. foreign policy in the MENA is, therefore, depicted by a cautious evolutionary stance rather than supporting revolutionary shifts in power

U.S. Democracy Promotion from Bush to Obama. EUSpring Working Paper No. 1, April 2015

Throughout the twenty-first century the United States (U.S.) has attempted to balance its traditional national security interests, whilst also seeking to promote the long-term transformation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) towards democracy based on liberal values. With the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks providing a catalyst for policy change, the U.S. has moved away from its twentieth-century policy of pursuing a regional status quo and instinctively balking at political change. Yet, the U.S. has not abandoned its reliance on autocratic regimes that cooperate on more immediate national security interests such as counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and the free-flow energy sources into the global market. Rather, U.S. democracy promotion in the MENA has become incremental by design and is characterized by its gradualist and often collaborative nature. U.S. foreign policy in the MENA is, therefore, depicted by a cautious evolutionary stance rather than supporting revolutionary shifts in power

The Independent, V. 57, Thursday, May 12, 1932, [Whole Number: 2962]

[4] p. Accept and Defend the Truth Wherever Found. Newspaper published in Collegeville, Pa. Weekly. Contains local, county, state and national news, agricultural reading matter, fiction, public sales and advertisements.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/independent/2768/thumbnail.jp

The Independent, V. 57, Thursday, May 19, 1932, [Whole Number: 2963]

[4] p. Accept and Defend the Truth Wherever Found. Newspaper published in Collegeville, Pa. Weekly. Contains local, county, state and national news, agricultural reading matter, fiction, public sales and advertisements.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/independent/2769/thumbnail.jp

George W. Bush, September 11th and the rise of the Freedom Agenda in US-Middle East relations: a Constructivist Institutionalist approach

This thesis generates a greater understanding of the George W. Bush administration’s Freedom Agenda for the Middle East and North Africa. It is motivated by two central research questions: How and why was the Freedom Agenda developed? And, how was the Freedom Agenda constituted? To address these questions, a constructivist institutionalist methodology is developed. The value of this undertaking, is that it theorises the relationship between the events of September 11, 2001, and the rise of the Freedom Agenda. Consequently, this research focuses on the narrative constructed in the aftermath of the “crisis”, and how this laid discursive tracks for the evolution of the Freedom Agenda. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the Bush administration appropriated and articulated multiple discourses into a distinctive ideological-discursive formation, which in turn, sedimented particular definitions of concepts such as ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. This created a new policy paradigm, which failed to address the ‘conflict of interests’ problem central to US-Middle East relations. As a result, the Freedom Agenda demonstrated a commitment to regional stability and the gradual reform of ally regimes, whilst seeking to challenge regimes hostile to the US. It was a policy caught between promoting democracy and domination

Rentierism and Reform in Jordan: A Sustainable System Following the Arab Spring?

Thesis advisor: Kathleen BaileyThe recent wave of unrest across the Middle East has raised crucial questions about the stability of the remaining regimes in the region. Monarchies have appeared to have weathered the Arab Spring well and have emerged relatively intact while republics such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria have experienced revolutions that have completely overturned existing political and economic systems. Jordan has consistently been praised as a beacon of gradual liberalization in a region where so many dictators have ruthlessly clung to power. Upon closer inspection, however, the Jordanian system is not as well adjusted to democracy and economic capitalism as it may seem. The rentier system, most commonly found in resource rich countries, allows authoritarian regimes to co-opt their populations by using economic rent to supply goods and services usually provided by representative governments. Jordan fulfills a unique role as a rentier state because it does not possess natural resources but is instead able to co-opt its citizens as a result of the influx of external rent that the government receives through foreign aid and remittances. Drawing analysis primarily from scholarly articles and making use of media analysis and first person interviews, I examine the current problems facing the Jordanian system and the changes that have taken place as a result of the popular uprisings during the Arab Spring. The larger implications of this research present a roadmap for other entrenched regimes to follow in order to avoid falling into the self reinforcing and destructive system of favors and economic rent. While it may be too late for Jordan to reform its political system without a revolutionary overhaul, other regimes have the potential to work their way out of the rentier system before the network of rentseeking groups in itself becomes a force that not even the regime can stop.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: College Honors Program.Discipline: Political Science