MER Article Egypt's Military Egypt’s armed forces number well over 300,000 men, the largest in the Arab world or in Africa. Some two thirds are in the army, and most of the rest in the air force. Since 1952, the top political leadership has been drawn from the armed forces. Since 1968, there has been a “demilitarization” of the Joe Stork • 4 min read
MER Article Egypt's Debt Problem Egypt’s external debt—the sums owed to other governments, private multinational banks and multilateral agencies like the World Bank—increased on an average of 28 percent per year under Anwar al-Sadat, compared to 13 percent over the previous ten years. Sadat’s decade also witnessed important shifts Joe Stork • 4 min read
MER Article Sadat's Egypt: A Balance Sheet We now know that the execution-style death of Anwar al-Sadat on the anniversary of the October war crossing was the prelude to neither a coup d’etat nor a popular uprising. Government institutions continued to function within the established legal framework and internal stability reigned. The trial Marie-Christine Aulas • 23 min read
MER Article In the Footsteps of Sadat Israel invaded Lebanon on June 6, 1982, the fifteenth anniversary of the June war of 1967. Then, Egypt was the main Arab combatant state in a war that redrew the geopolitical map of the Middle East. Today, Israel is again redrawing the map, with Palestinian and Lebanese blood. This time Egypt has fi Joe Stork, Judith Tucker • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1982) Events since early June, and specifically the Reagan administration’s complete support for and identification with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, accentuates the long-standing need to mobilize popular opposition to US policy in the Middle East. The possibilities for such efforts now exist to a greate The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Letters (June 1982) To the editors: This letter is in regard to your most recent issue on Iran, “Khomeini and the Opposition” (MERIP Reports 104). It includes interviews with representatives of the right opposition (Bakhtiar) as well as the left opposition. The latter, we learn, includes the Islamic left (Mojahedin’s R (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Selassie, Conflict and Intervention in the Horn of Africa Bereket Habte Selassie, Conflict and Intervention in the Horn of Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980). (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Halliday and Molyneux, The Ethiopian Revolution Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux, The Ethiopian Revolution (London: Verso, 1982). Most Western commentators sharply criticize the current Ethiopian regime and the process that brought it to power. They argue that there has been no genuine revolution in Ethiopia, but rather a military coup followed James Paul • 5 min read
MER Article Dispatches: The War in Eritrea February 27, 1982 On February 16 the Ethiopian armed forces launched Operation Red Star, a military offensive aimed at isolating the Eritrean opposition and rebuilding the war-torn territory. Ethiopian troops in Eritrea number 120,000, and they are backed by MiG 23 jet fighters, MI-24 helicopter gu Gayle Smith • 4 min read
MER Article Building Ethiopia's Revolutionary Party In April 1976, more than 18 months after taking power, Ethiopia’s ruling Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) finally provided an elaborated ideological basis for the Ethiopian revolution. The National Democratic Revolution Program, published that month, included many of the changes de Patrick Gilkes • 19 min read
MER Article With the WSLF I traveled into Ogaden with the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) for five days in August 1980. We drove about 230 miles across open savanna in broad daylight, crossing the main road between the Ethiopian garrisons in Degabur and Gebredarre. On the third day we reached a town of over 10,000, a Lynne Barbee • 1 min read
MER Article "Nationalism Turned Inside Out" Fred Halliday conducted this interview in London in May 1982. I. M. Lewis • 18 min read
