Shadi Hamid Considers Reconceptualizing U.S.-Egyptian Relations

Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center Shadi Hamid published a paper today entitled, “Beyond Guns and Butter: A U.S.-Egyptian Relationship for a Democratic Era.” The publication considers in depth the development of the U.S.-Egyptian relationship one year after the fall of Mubarak, focusing specifically on the anti-American sentiment created by the ruling Egyptian military and their indictment of 16 American NGO workers. Hamid explains that the NGO episode and the subsequent waver of the aid conditions previously set forth by congress reflects “something larger and more troubling. “Hamid argues that the NGO episode has created an atmosphere of uncertainty, paranoia, disunity, and conspiracy in Egypt as the people attempt to determine “who is with the revolution and who isn’t.”

Hamid states that while the “roots of the problem” lie in the in a mishandled transition, where political actors have vied for legitimacy “trading variously on revolutionary symbolical and rhetoric, electoral success, and past persecution.” However, Hamid argues that the growing anti-American sentiment raises questions about the direction of U.S. policy toward Egypt. Hamid says that it is in the interests of the U.S. and International community to see Egypt through transition ensuring a free and unhindered civil society and fixing their deteriorating economy. This assurance requires, says Hamid, an “executive authority that can govern effectively and legitimately; something that Hamid says Egypt does not currently have. As such, Hamid says that Egypt’s largest donors (the U.S. and Europe” should condition any future economic support to concrete progress on political reform, “according to measurable benchmarks.” Seeing economic aid and democracy assistance as “two sides of the same coin” are the first steps of creating a U.S.-Egypt relationship “built on mutual respect, transparency, and he identification and pursuit of genuinely shared interests.”