Egypt's military post-2011: Playing politics without internal cracks

Hussein, Ebtisam; DE MARTINO, Claudia

doi:10.1525/caa.2019.121004

Download

Article (Scientific journals)

Egypt's military post-2011: Playing politics without internal cracks

Hussein, Ebtisam; DE MARTINO, Claudia

2019 • In Contemporary Arab Affairs, 12 (1), p. 55 - 74

Peer reviewed

Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10993/67682

DOI
10.1525/caa.2019.121004

Files (1)Send to Details Statistics Bibliography Similar publications

Files

Full Text

Article Egypt.pdf

Author postprint (696.11 kB)

Download

All documents in ORBilu are protected by a user license.

Send to

RIS BibTex APA Chicago Permalink X Linkedin

Details

Keywords :

Autonomy; Conscription; Egypt; Military; Social cleavages; Cultural Studies; Political Science and International Relations

Abstract :

[en] Seven years after the 2011 uprisings, the Egyptian military shows no evident signs of internal cracks. This article argues that the Egyptian army's unrivalled dominance, both in politics and within the security apparatus, could be explained as the result of three combined factors: substantial economic interests, a long-time legitimacy buttressed by the army's active involvement in welfare and development initiatives, and the reliance on universal conscription as the main avenue for the successful accommodation of class and social cleavages-key elements underpinning the army's status of supreme political arbitrator in Egyptian politics.

Disciplines :

Sociology & social sciences

Author, co-author :

Hussein, Ebtisam; School of International Studies, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, China ; Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

DE MARTINO, Claudia ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) > Contemporary History of Luxembourg

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Egypt's military post-2011: Playing politics without internal cracks

Publication date :

March 2019

Journal title :

Contemporary Arab Affairs

ISSN :

1755-0912

eISSN :

1755-0920

Publisher :

University of California Press

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

55 - 74

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://brill.com/view/journals/jcaa/12/1/article-p55_6.xml

Available on ORBilu :

since 04 February 2026

Statistics

Number of views

2 (0 by Unilu)

Number of downloads

0 (0 by Unilu)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Abdelrahman, Maha. 2015. Egypt's Long Revolution: Protest Movements and Uprisings. London: Routledge.
Abul-Magd, Zeinab. 2014. “Egypt's Adaptable Officers: Power, Business and Discontent.” Analysis 265 (June). http://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/pubblicazioni/analysis_265__2014.pdf
2017. Feeding Social Stability in Egypt. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. June 8. http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/71198
Aclimandos, Tewfik. 2012a. “L'Armée égyptienne: Ultime Garant de la Pérennité du Régime” [The Egyptian Army: Ultimate Guarantor of Regime Sustainability]. In La place et le rôle des armées dans le monde contemporain [The Place and Role of Armies in the Contemporary World], edited by Flavien Bourrat, 39-56. Paris: Les Champs de Mars.
2012b. Healing without Amputating? Security Sector Reform in Egypt. September. Arab Reform Initiative. http://www.arab-reform.net/en/node/590
Adam, Mohamad, and S. Carr. 2016. “Brute Force Inside Central Security Forces.” Egyptian Independent September 16. http://www.egyptindependent.com/brute-forceinside-central-security-forces/
Al-Ahram Online Editorial Team. 2015. “al-Sisi Visits General Intelligence Service headquarters.” al-Ahram Online January 1. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/119293/Egypt/Politics-/ElSisivisits-General-Intelligence-Service-headqua.aspx
Ali, Noura. 2016. “Egypt's Armed Forces Pay Rising Dramatically Since July 3 Military Coup.” Middle East Observer November 8. https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2016/11/08/the-salaries-of-egypts-armed-forces-hiked-dramatically-after-the-military-coup/
Al Jawadi, M. M. 2003. Qādat al-shurta fi al-sisāya al-Misriyya 1952-2002: dirāsa tahlīliyyawamawsū atshaksiyyāt [Police Commanders in Egyptian Polities 1952-2002: An Analytical Study and a Biographical Dictionary). Cairo: Madbuly.
Allam, Rabha. 2015. “Prospects of Police Reform in Egypt's Changing Political Environment 2011-2015.” Master's diss., American University in Cairo. http://dar.aucegypt.edu/handle/10526/4374
Ashour, Omar. 2012 From Bad Cop to Good Cop: The Challenge of Security Sector Reform in Egypt. Paper Series No. 3, November. Brookings Doha Center. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Omar-Ashour-English.pdf
2015. “Sinai's Stubborn Insurgency, Why Egypt Can't Win.” Foreign Policy November 8. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/egypt/2015-11-08/sinaisstubborn-insurgency
Aswat Masriya Editorial Board. 2015. “Sisi's Committee to Improve Values, Morals Sparks Debate.” Aswat Masriya November 27. http://allafrica.com/stories/201511280239.html
Awad, Marwa. 2012. “Special Report: In Egypt's Military, a March for Change.” Reuters, April 10. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-army-idUSBRE8390IV20 120410
Bahgat, Hossam. 2015. “A Coup Busted? The Secret Military Trial of 26 Officers for Plotting 'Regime Change' with the Brotherhood.” Mada Masr October 14. https://www.madamasr.com/en/2015/10/14/feature/politics/a-coup-busted/
Barany, Zoltan. 2011. “Comparing the Arab Revolts. The Role of the Military.” Journal of Democracy 22 (4): 28-39. http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Barany-22-4.pdf
Bayoumi, Yara. 2015. “In Egypt, Ex-Military Men Fire up Islamist Insurgency.” Reuters, April 7. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-militants-military-insightidUSKBN0MY1PR20150407
Brand, Laurie A. 2014. Official Stories. Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Brumberg, Daniell, and Hesham Sallam. 2012. The Politics of Security Sector Reform in Egypt. Special Report No. 318, October. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR318_0.pdf
Christiansen, Lars Gunnar. 2015. Custodians of Social Peace or Contenders in a Popularity Contest? The Egyptian Armed Forces and Egypt's Coptic Christians. CMI Working Paper No. 4. https://www.cmi.no/publications/5511-custodians-of-socialpeace-or-contenders-in-a
Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt 2014. http://www.sis.gov.eg/Newvr/Dustor-en001.pdf
El-Sherif, A. 2014. Egypt's Post Mubarak Predicament. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 29 January. Accessed November 13, 2016. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Brief-El-Sherif_Egypt.pdf
Elsaesser, Sebastian. 2011. “The Coptic Question in Contemporary Egypt.” Ph.D. diss., Freie Universität Berlin.
El-Tablawy, Tarek. 2016. “When the Baby Milk Disappeared, Egypt Turned to the Military.” Bloomberg September 9. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/when-the-baby-milk-disappeared-egypt-turned-to-the-military
Fayek, Mina. 2014a. “Welcome to the 'Factory of Men.'” Open Democracy May 20. https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/mina-fayek/welcome-tofactory-of-men
2014b. “Copts in El Sisi's Eg ypt.” Open Democracy May 29. https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/mina-fayek/copts-in-el-sisiseg ypt
Federation of American Scientists (FAS). 2016. “Egypt: Intelligence Agencies.” Last modified October 2016. https://fas.org/irp/world/egypt/
Frisch, Hillel. 2013. “The Egyptian Army and Egypt's 'Spring.'” Journal of Strategic Studies 36 (2): 180-204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2012.740659
Galey, Patrick. 2012. “Why the Egyptian Military Fears a Captains' Revolt.” Foreign Policy February 16. http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/16/why-the-egyptian-militaryfears-a-captains-revolt/
Gaub, Florence. 2011. Arab Armies: Agents of Change? Before and After 2011. EUISS Chaillot Papers, March. http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Chaillot_Paper_131_Arab_armies.pdf
Gelvin, James L. 2012. The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press.
Grote, Rainer, and Tilmann Roeder, eds. 2016. Constitutionalism, Human Rights and Islam After the Arab Spring. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gotowicki, Stephen H. 1997. The Role of the Egyptian Military in Domestic Society. U.S. Army. Washington, DC: Department of Defense, FMSO Report. http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/egypt/egypt.htm
Hamed, A. 2014. Revolution as a Process: The Case of the Egyptian Uprising. Vienna: Wiener.
Hashemi, A. 2011. “The Egyptian Military. Part Two. From Mubarak Onward.” Middle East Policy 18, no. 4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4967.2011.00514.x
Hauslohner, Abigail. 2014. “The Egyptian Military Expands its Economic Control.” Washington Post March 16. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?destination=%2fworld%2fmiddle_east%2fegyptian-military-expands-its-economic-control%2f2 014%2f03%2f16%2f39508b52-a554-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html%3f&ut m_term=.220eb901aade
Heinrich Böll Stiftung. 2017. After Egypt's Military Steps into Politics, Will Politics Step into the Military? Policy Brief Egypt No. 4, February. https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/egypt-paper4-military.pdf
Henry, Clement M., and Robert Springborg. 2011. “A Tunisian Solution for Egypt's Military: Why Egypt's Military Will Not be Able to Govern.” Foreign Affairs 21 (2): n.p. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/tunisia/2011-02-21/tunisian-solution-egypts-military
Human Capital Research Portal. 2016. Labour Force Survey in Egypt. Human Capital Research Portal. Accessed October 10, 2017. http://www.hcresearchportal.com/content-egypt/labour-force
Human Rights Watch. 2012. “Egypt: Military Power Grab Creates Conditions for Abuse.” Refworld June 21. http://www.refworld.org/docid/4fe82e2d2.html
Huntington, Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Ibrahim, Ekram. 2012. “Justice Denied: Egypt's Maspero Massacre One Year On.” Ahram Online October 9. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/54821/Egypt/Politics-/Justice-denied-Egypts-Maspero-massacre-one-year-on.aspx
IRIN. 2011. Bedouins Begin to Demand Equal Citizenship Rights. Report. http://www.irinnews.org/news/2011/06/16/bedouins-begin-demand-equalcitizenship-rights
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). 2016. The Military Balance. London: Routledge.
Janowitz, M. 1977. Military Institutions and Coercion in the Developing Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Joscelyn, Thomas, and Caleb Weiss. 2015. “Former Egyptian Special Forces Officer Leads al-Murabitoun.” Long War Journal July 23. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/07/former-egyptian-special-forces-officer-leads-al-murabitoon.php
Kandil, Hazem. 2012. Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen. Egypt's Road to Revolt. London: Verso.
2014. Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen. Egypt's Road to Revolt, 2nd ed. London: Verso.
Kechichian, Joseph, and Jeanne Nazimek. 1997. “Challenges to the Military in Egypt.” Middle East Policy 5 (3): 125-139. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4967.1997.tb00286.x/abstract
Kohn, Richard H. 1997. “How Democracies Control the Military.” Journal of Democracy 8 (4): 140-153. http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/kohn_how_democracies_control_the_military.pdf
Korshid, Sara. 2014. The Genie is Out of the Bottle. Faisal Street on Day One of the Elections. The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. https://timep.org/presidentialelections-monitoring/the-genie-is-out-of-the-bottle/#one
Lavie, Smadar. 1990. The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity under Israeli and Egyptian Rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lutterbeck, Derek. 2012. “Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces, and Civil-Military Relations.” Armed Forces and Society 39 (1): 28-52. doi:10.1177/0095327×12442768
Mansour-Ille, Dina. 2016. The Socioeconomics of Exclusion: Re-Questioning Citizenship in Relation to Social Justice in Post-Arab Spring Egypt. EUSpring Policy Brief, February 18. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/researchcentres/irs/euspring/publications/euspring_template_-pb_eg_final.pdf
Masoud, Tarek. 2014. Counting Islam, Religion, Class and Elections in Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLauchlin, Theodore. 2010. “Loyalty Strategies and Military Defection in Rebellion.” Comparative Politics 42 (3): 333-350. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2010/00000042/00000003/art00005
Morsy, Ahmed. 2016. “Reining in the Police.” al-Ahram Weekly March 3-9. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/15671.aspx
Moughira, Mohammed Anouar. 2015. Les Armées Arabes et le Pouvoir d'Etat, Militaires du Peuple ou du Régime? [Arab Armies and State Power, Militaries of the People or of the Regime?]. Paris: Karthala.
Mounir, Hossam. 2017. “The Official Unemployment Rate Drops.” Daily News Egypt May 15. https://dailynewsegypt.com/2017/05/15/official-unemployment-ratedrops-12-q1-2017/
Nader, Emir. 2015. “Egypt's Draft-dodgers.” Al-Monitor July 22. http://www.almonitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/egypt-military-conscription-sinai-attacks.html
Nepstad, Sharon Erikson. 2013. “Mutiny and Nonviolence in the Arab Spring. Exploring Military Defections and Loyalty in Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria.” Journal of Peace Research 50 (3): 337-349. doi:10.1177/0022343313476529
Refworld. 2015. “Egypt: Situation of Coptic Christians, Including Treatment; State Protection Available (2014-May 2015).” Refworld May 8. http://www.refworld.org/docid/557e7e814.html
Revkin, Mara, and Yussef Auf. 2013. “Egypt's Fallen Police State Gives Way to Vigilante Justice.” The Atlantic April 3. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/egypts-fallen-police-state-gives-way-to-vigilante-justice/274616/
Roll, S. 2016. “Managing Change: How Egypt's Military Leadership Shaped the Transformation.” Mediterranean Politics 21 (1): 23-43. doi:10.1080/13629395.2015. 1081452
Sayigh, Yazid. 2012. Above the State: The Officers' Republic in Egypt.” The Carnegie Paper, Middle East, August. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. http://carnegieendowment.org/files/officers_republic1.pdf
Shils, Edward. 1962. “The Military in the Political Development of the New States.” In The Role of the Military in Underdeveloped Countries, edited by John J. Johnson, 7-68. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sirrs, Owen. 2010. A History of the Egyptian Intelligence Service. A History of the Mukhabarat, and the Secret Police: 1910-2009. London: Routledge.
Springborg, Robert. 1989. Mubarak's Egypt: Fragmentation of the Political Order. Boulder: Westview.
2016. “Foreword.” In Business in Arms: How the Military and Other Armed Groups Profit in the MENA Region, edited by Zeinab Abul-Magd and Elke Grawert, xi-xvii. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Suleiman, Omar. 2016. Egypt's Transition and the Challenge of Security Sector Reform. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Oen_RBStY
Teti, Andrea, Luca Anceschi and Gennaro Gervasio. 2014. Informal Power in the Greater Middle East: Hidden Geographies. London: Routledge.
Taylor, William. 2014. Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2016. Egypt Country Profile. Accessed July 17, 2018. http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/EGY
War Resisters International. 1998. Conscription in Egypt. Attachment No. 7. War Resisters International. http://www.wri-irg.org/en/programmes/world_survey/reports/Egypt
Wenig, Gillad. 2014. “Egypt's Army of God.” Foreign Affairs November 4. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-10-31/egypts-army-god
Zarad, Abu El H. 2016. “The Mega National Projects: A Locomotive of Development.” Egypt State Information Service, October. http://www.sis.gov.eg/section/337/4683?lang=en-us
Zirker, Daniel G. 2015. Foreign Military Identity in Culturally Pluralistic Society. Quasi-Ethnicity. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Zohny, Ahmed. Y. 1987. “Towards an Apolitical Role for the Egyptian Military in the Management of Development: Assessment of President Sadat's Decision No. 32 January 1979.” Orient 4: 548-56.