Hosni Mubarak Research Articles

European diplomats in the MENA region: a two-sided sense of disillusionment

ABSTRACT The ‘Arab Spring’ posed major emotional challenges to European diplomats. Sympathies for the demonstrators’ open embrace of European norms and values merged with discomfort about incalculable consequences following the former rulers’ eventual fall. Focusing on Egypt, this contribution analyses how European diplomats reacted to Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and the following developments. With their reminiscences to Europe’s own history and the European Union’s (EU) self-perception as ‘force for good’, a two-sided sense of disillusionment grew among European representatives: about the regime’s eventual unwillingness to reform, and about their own incapacity to meaningfully support change. Based on extensive research in Cairo and Brussels, this article analyses the emotions that escorted the actions of officials from the EU and its member states in Egypt. From a multi-level perspective, it considers activities by the EU Delegation to Egypt and EU member states’ embassies in Cairo, plus initiatives coming from Brussels.

Shaping Modern Egypt: A Captivating Tale Of History and Political Transformation

Purpose: This article examines Egypt's transformation from an Ottoman province to a modern state, starting with Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798 incursion and the modernization efforts of Mehmet Ali Pasha. It covers key historical periods, including the monarchy, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, and the Cold War and post-Cold War era. Method: Using a historical-analytical approach, the study explores the eras of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak. It highlights Nasser's socialist policies and ties with the Soviet Union, Sadat's economic liberalization and the Camp David Accords, and Mubarak's economic reforms and political repression leading to the 2011 Arab Spring. Conclusion: The article critically analyzes Egypt's struggle for independence, democratic governance, and socio-economic development. It emphasizes the need for strengthening democratic institutions, diversifying the economy, enhancing education and healthcare, and promoting political inclusivity. Implication of the Research: The research offers recommendations to help Egypt build on its historical legacy and ensure a prosperous, democratic, and stable future, addressing key socio-political challenges. Originality of the Research: This article provides a nuanced historical account and analysis of Egypt's political evolution, integrating modernization and dependency theories, and offers valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in Middle Eastern politics and development.

Ten Years After: Revisiting the Ouster Of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

AbstractThe ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 marked a turning point in Egypt's modern history. The long‐persecuted Muslim Brotherhood immediately became a key political player, and its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won election to lead the country. But despite those two years of popular engagement and victories at the ballot box, Morsi was ousted and the movement banished once again after a confrontation with the military in July 2013. Why did the Brotherhood choose to risk a conflict with the armed forces and not seek a compromise? This article contends that the decision was driven by the Muslim Brotherhood's long history of persecution, its broad base of support, its impressive successes after Mubarak fell, and its fear of losing the presidency. These set the Brotherhood on a course of action that suited its experiences and preferences. This path led the movement to ignore several facts suggesting it must seek to coordinate with the armed forces: The Brotherhood and the military did not enjoy cordial relations after Morsi's election in 2012; the movement's grassroots power was substantial, but there was no evidence it could prevail over the military's demand for Morsi to step down; and the military maintained its internal cohesion. Therefore, the Muslim Brotherhood's historical path guided its decision to avoid cooperation.

Public diplomacy of authoritarianism: Strategic use of Suzanne Mubarak

AbstractA leader's wife can be a key player in consolidating his authoritarianism through her public diplomacy activities. Taking the example of Egypt's former First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak (1981–2011), this article demonstrates how her role in public diplomacy framed her as a “modern” woman with a mission of “modernizing” women or the country's whole population. The modernization model adopted in these frames presumes the need for agents to transform “traditional” societies into “modern” societies and the need for agents to build more networks of collaboration with the “West.” The second section of the article focuses on political instrumentality, showing how former President Hosni Mubarak attempted to look good, to look democratic, and to look useful to his allies. This process was partly organized by Mrs. Mubarak herself, who used her public diplomacy roles as opportunities and resources to build a personality cult drawn on glorifying herself and aggrandizing her activities.

A Revolutionist Analysis of The Thirty-Year Authoritarian Rule of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt

This study aims to analyze the Egyptian revolution and the subsequent overthrow of the long-standing authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak. The text emphasizes the youth of Egypt's part in changing the dictatorship to establish democracy in the country. This paper emphasizes the reasons that motivated the Egyptians to leave their homes and overthrow Hosni Mubarak. The investigation also includes the excessive use of authority by state officials to suppress protests. This research also examines the involvement of the military and other law enforcement agencies during the revolution. The text delves into the utilization of social media during the protests and its role in disseminating information about the events. This document briefly discusses the previous authoritarian leaders of Egypt, including Hosni Mubarak. The text also delves into the strategies employed by authoritarian regimes to extend their reigns.

Development Challenges in Egypt: Constraints, Practices, and Opportunities

This paper analyzes the constraints, practices, and opportunities of Egypt’s development. Egypt experienced economic stagnation under the regime of President Hosni Mubarak which was exacerbated by the political situation that resulted from its end. Egypt’s economic efforts stalled and it was not until the end of the power struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Army, during the counterrevolutionary period, that political normalcy returned to the extent needed to focus on improvements of the domestic economic situation. This phase resulted in the election of President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi whose policies fought back against terrorism and initiated successful developmental efforts to address developmental constraints. These initiatives range from diplomatic efforts to solve the Nile River dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia, building roads and bridges, encouraging foreign investment, and increasing the supply of electricity. There is still a long way to go in terms of building various industries, increasing exports, lowering unemployment rates, and encouraging tourism as an important source of income and also a vital means of obtaining foreign currency. Successful development efforts in Egypt will allow for increased levels of self-sufficiency regarding agriculture and water as well as broader levels of prosperity across other sectors of production.

Between (de-)mobilization, polarization, and transnational repression: the Egyptian diaspora in the wake of the January 25 uprising

ABSTRACT More than a decade has passed since the Egyptian Uprising of 2011 resulted in the ouster of long-time president Hosni Mubarak. This large-scale protest episode mobilized not only tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters of various stripes in Egypt, but also inspired activism amongst Egyptians living abroad. These events, in combination with the turbulent post-revolutionary years that followed, affected deeply and were formative for many Egyptian diasporans. This article explores how these events influenced members of the diaspora both in terms of their intra-diasporic relationships as well as their transnational engagement with Egypt under the reign of the new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources, including semi-structured interviews with diaspora members and activists, it paints a complex picture of increased polarization – very much along the political fault lines found in Egypt – and overall lower, but still notable, levels of both national and transnational political engagement.

The evolution of the internal political situation in Libya after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime

Researchers from Western countries and some Russian scientists initially enthusiastically classified anti-government protests and uprisings in the 2010s in a number of Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa as «Arab Spring» or «Arab Awakening».However, the consequences of these «springs» and «awakenings» in some countries of the abovementioned region caused less delight and more anxiety. Indeed, if Tunisia after its «Arab Spring» returned to stable development, in Egypt one general (Hosni Mubarak) was replaced by another (Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi), then in Yemen, and especially in Libya, as a consequence of the «Arab awakenings» civil wars occurred, that are still ongoing, and threaten the complete disintegration of the above-mentioned countries.Based on the above, it is quite obvious that the analysis of the causes, the content of the main stages and consequences of the evolution of the internal political situation in Libya after the overthrow of the regime of M. Gaddafi in October 2011 is not only an urgent scientific, but also a political task. The purpose of the article is to analyze the reasons for the destabilization of the internal political situation in Libya since October 2011, the content of its key stages and consequences. When writing the text of the article, the following scientific methods were used: problem-chronological, comparativehistorical, periodization method, historical-genetic, historical-retrospective, etc. The development of the internal political situation in Libya since October 2011 has led the Libyan state to total disintegration. The Libyan statehood, which until October 2011 was not particularly strong and stable, is confidently drifting towards fragmentation and autonomy within not only individual regions, but even individual cities.

Egypt’s economic crisis and uneasy position in the Middle East

Egypt’s president is likely to secure a third term in December 2023 elections despite severe economic challenges and waning public support. The country has changed its international posture in the last decade due to its perception that Washington has become less committed to supporting Egyptian leaders since the 2011 ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak. It has forged closer ties with Russia and China and leaned more heavily on regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and even Israel.

Ruling by Wife

Abstract Research on the powers or roles of first ladies in authoritarian Arab states suffers from two gaps. First, there are always attempts to homogenize women under which the president’s spouse is simply subsumed within categories such as “Arab women,” “Muslim women,” or “Egyptian women.” Second, literature explaining the dynamics of authoritarian durability has mainly focused on what is institutional, for instance, the army, legislature, and political parties. This article focuses on a single woman as part of the toolbox authoritarian leaders use to maintain power and as part of their political expediency. It uses quantitative and qualitative methods to track the progression of the roles of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne Mubarak, and the manifestations of these roles in the state media throughout Mubarak’s rule (1981–2011). The frame analysis of 1,339 articles found this progression to be linear; that is, Suzanne Mubarak moved from traditional ceremonial roles in the 1980s to policy-oriented ones in the 1990s to political roles, even acting as “copresident” in the 2000s. Through interviews, the data-based findings are contextualized within historically conditioned challenges facing the regime, such as relations with Islamists, the adoption of neoliberal economic policies, and Hosni Mubarak’s frail health in the final years of his rule.

The Political Path of Copts in Egypt after 2011

The Coptic Church monopolized the religious and political representation of the Copts since the establishment of the Egyptian state. It withdrew from direct involvement in the political sphere during the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, characterized by a close relationship between the Church and the political regime, especially in times of perceived common threats. Consequently, the Church often supported the regime to safeguard against potential risks that might arise if the regime were to fall. In this context, Mubarak's regime used Islamist elements to intimidate the Copts, while justifying its actions by claiming that the secular political system had become sectarian. Consequently, Mubarak's regime closed its doors to Coptic representation within his party.
 The January 25th, 2011 revolution provided an opportunity for the Copts to act more freely in the political climate. However, this newfound democracy had its challenges, as it witnessed the mobilization and substantial participation of Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, utilizing their organizational capacity. Through this religious polarization, the Islamists succeeded in winning elections, leading to the presidential victory of Mohamed Morsi.
 The Muslim Brotherhood failed to alleviate the Copts' concerns about religious freedom and their marginalization in state institutions. Moreover, some Brotherhood leaders and their allies adopted a sectarian rhetoric against the Copts, which had negative consequences on the overall political direction of the Brotherhood. This ultimately led to their downfall, paving the way for a new era of governance in Egypt.

Political Change in Egypt After the January revolution (2011-2013)

With the increase in injustice، oppression and tyranny، the absence of justice، the multiplicity of crises، political corruption، poor conditions in justice، and the presentation of a fair distribution of wealth in the Arab countries، the wealth of Egypt has become the change. And I witnessed in the agreement the absence of freedoms and rights to the formation of protest movements that possessed sufficient awareness to obtain the demands of the revolution and the census of the masses، so the movements had a great role in the January revolution and the demand for the recovery of the stolen rights. The regime of Muhammad Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt after the 2011 uprising: the implications of transitional justice in a non-liberal transition

ABSTRACT Analysing transitional justice mechanisms in the non-liberal transition of post-revolutionary Egypt, from the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak to the election of ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, this article seeks to enhance the understanding of the character of the transition period and the re-establishment of authoritarianism in Egypt, but also to shed light on the implications of the manipulation of transitional justice in order to bolster repressive structures in non-liberal transitions. Based on analysing transitional justice as a contested process whose mechanism and outcomes are shaped according to specific domestic power structures and coalitions, the article argues that the ability of Egypt’s elites, led by the military, to control the transitional justice process and to manipulate it to enhance their power and interests depended on their coercive capacity but was also a product of their ability to utilise the deep gaps among political forces, which had different interests and perceptions regarding transitional justice (reformative or revolutionary) in order to create shifting alliances and agreements on the boundaries of transitional justice and hence affect its outcomes.

Facebook and Twitter as Platforms for Human Good: A Case of Egypt Uprising, 2011

Through wider and rapid dissemination of information, social media sites (Facebook and Twitter in this article) influence the psychology of the users, making them ready for the collective action. This article analyses the role played by Facebook and Twitter in bringing about political change in Egypt during the Egyptian Uprising of 2011. Drawing insights from social media studies and Foucauldian discourse of power, this article exposes the tussle between the autocratic Egyptian government led by the then president Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian citizens and scrutinizes the horizontal connectivity and dissemination of information, citizen journalism, pervasive nature of power, and multiple resistance sites. It concludes that in materializing their aspirations of right, liberation, and justice along with the economic, social, and political revamp, Egyptian civilians took recourse in digital technologies and freed themselves from thirty-years long dictatorship of Mubarak.

Revolution, Change, and Democratic Transition in Egypt Since 2011: A Critical Political Economy Approach

The causes, consequences, and trajectory of the 2011 uprising in Egypt have been and continue to be a subject of scholarly debate. This article is situated within this debate with a particular focus on the role of political economy factors in engendering democracy and democratic transition. The key research objectives are to address why the Egyptian people came together in 2011 in an unprecedented show of solidarity to overthrow the Hosni Mubarak regime, to evaluate the interpretive frames for this uprising from two overlapping but fundamentally opposed perspectives—liberal democracy and radical democracy; to assess the extent to which the adoption of neoliberalism, accompanied by poverty and inequality, played a role in fomenting the countermovement against the regime; and to identify the underlying structures and process that links the 2011 uprising to the regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The article concludes that the imposition of a neoliberal regime of capital accumulation, with dispossession and upward wealth redistribution at its heart, created the conditions for the rise of radical democratic mass movements that overthrew both Mubarak and Mohammed Morsi. The article further underlines that the regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi not only halted the democratic reforms demanded by the Egyptian people but continues, at a faster pace, to impose the same neoliberal economic restructuring that catalyzed the uprising in the first place.

Quantum Political Science: Learning About Politics from Egypt

Abstract Mona El-Ghobashy’s Bread and Freedom: Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation makes three important contributions to political science. First, it is a sensitive and perceptive account of the years of upheaval in Egypt between the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak and the election of Abdelfattah el-Sisi in 2014. Second, in recounting this history, El-Ghobashy moves political science beyond typologizing, urging us away from assigning labels to instead examining the practices by which each government ruled, how the ruled reacted, and how these interactions shaped the trajectory of political change. In doing so, El-Ghobashy makes the case for focusing on contingency itself as an analytical frame, offering an ambitious argument about the nature of social science as it addresses uncertainty.

Al‐Azhar and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

<scp>Al‐Azhar</scp> and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

The German University In Cairo (GUC)

This story tells the preparations for the foundation phase, the opening, and operation of the German University in Cairo (GUC), a private enterprise looking back on a success story of about twenty years. Early 2001 the decision was made to establish the GUC under the patronage of the two German public universities Stuttgart and Ulm, with full support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Arts (MWK), BadenWurttemberg, Germany. GUC was opened on 5. October 2003 for the first 900 students, through an EgyptianGerman state inauguration ceremony, by the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Five years after the opening GUC became already the leading private university in Egypt. Actually, about 13,000 students are enrolled and more than 2,000 graduates (Bachelors, Masters and PhDs) have been educated by GUC and got excellent positions in Egypt and other countries – for the pleasure of themselves, their families and finally GUC. The GUC is the biggest and most successful project of transnational education of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – in 2015 about 42% of all students in German Transnational Education Projects were enrolled in GUC.

Turkish-Egyptian Relations after 2011: Political Dynamics of Geopolitical Turbulence

The Arab Spring process, which started in Tunisia in 2010 and soon spread throughout the entire Arab world, ended in 2011 with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt. Subsequently, as a result of the parliamentary elections held on November 28, 2011, the election of Mohammed Morsi under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood caused great enthusiasm in the Turkish public and marked a high point in the history of bilateral relations. However, in 2013, relations reached a breaking point and were reduced to a minimum after Morsi and his supporters were removed from power in a coup. On the other hand, in addition to the deep-rooted historical backgrounds of Turkey and Egypt, the presence of diplomatic opportunities in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean in a geopolitical context enabled the repeated development of bilateral relations. Thanks to all of this, relations between the two states began to normalize at the diplomatic level since the end of 2020. This study examines reasons for the development of the turbulent relationship between the two countries, which quickly reached both the peak and the bottom, before it began to normalize due to its geopolitical importance. The first part of the study examines Turkey’s foreign policy during the Arab Spring and its reflections on Egypt. The second part analyzes the reasons for the relations that peaked with the Morsi era. Then, it examines the causes of the negative impact of the military coup that took place in Egypt in 2013, which led to the breaking point in bilateral relations. Finally, it seeks to comprehensively explore the causes of turbulent relations by examining relations that have recently begun to normalize due to geopolitical concerns.

Intensyfikacja autorytaryzmu wojskowego w Egipcie w okresie prezydentury gen. Abd al-Fattaha as-Sisiego

The army was the most significant beneficiary of the Arab Spring in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak was replaced by a more powerful dictator, General Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi. Under the rule of General as-Sisi and his army, there is no place for dialogue between the ruling elite and society, or for democratisation and building a civil society. President General as-Sisi won the elections but has no legitimacy to rule. The short- and medium-term perspective of changes looks very unfavourable. The remilitarisation of Egypt and military electoral authoritarianism will continue. Adherents of General as-Sisi argue that his authoritarian rule is necessary to stabilise the situation in the country and prevent jihad attacks on the Sinai Peninsula. Opposition groups are encouraged to endorse the president through large-scale projects such as the New Administrative Capital, which sets out to testify that Egypt is rising to the rank of a regional power under the rule of President as-Sisi.