Current Analysis

Five Notes on Egypt's Crisis

Hani Shukrallah, the distinguished former editor of al-Ahram Weekly, laments [http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/59933/Opinion//The-decline-and-fall-of-the-Muslim-Brotherhood.aspx] the “decline and fall” of the Society of Muslim Brothers from a partner in a diverse Egyptian nation to a narr

Joshua Stacher • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Men Behaving Badly

Here we go again. A preposterous provocation easily manages to ignite fevered protests in Muslim-majority countries around the world, and everyone is worse off as a result. The episode is playing like a sequel to the 2005 Danish cartoon controversy, but with bigger and better explosions than the ori

Moustafa Bayoumi • 8 min read

Current Analysis

Copts Denounce Islamophobia

In the wake of the lethal rocket attack on State Department personnel in Benghazi, and salafi protesters’ assault upon the US Embassy in Cairo, Egyptian blogger Zeinobia draws attention [http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-protest-that-everybody-ignored.html] to “the protest that ever

• 3 min read

Current Analysis

Egyptian Politics Upended

When he took office on June 30, President Muhammad Mursi of Egypt looked to have been handed a poisoned chalice. The ruling generals of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had tolerated a clean presidential election but then had hollowed out the presidency, saddling Mursi with an executiv

Mona El-Ghobashy • 18 min read

MER Article

Brownlee, Democracy Prevention

Jason Brownlee, Democracy Prevention: The Politics of the US-Egyptian Alliance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Chris Toensing • 4 min read

MER Article

Lessons from Egypt's Tax Collectors

In December 2007, employees from the Real Estate Tax Authority in Egypt staged the largest occupation of a downtown Cairo area prior to the uprising that unseated Husni Mubarak. Angry about their working conditions, 8,000 tax collectors slept in front of the Ministers’ Council building on Husayn Hig

Jean Lachapelle • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Ordering Egypt's Chaos

To the left of a makeshift stage in a Cairo five-star hotel, the waiting continued. Ahmad Shafiq, the last prime minister of the deposed Husni Mubarak and one of two remaining candidates in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential race, was three hours late. Fewer than 60 hours were left until voting

Joshua Stacher • 12 min read

Current Analysis

A Revolution Is Not a Marketing Campaign

A revolution is not a marketing campaign or a digital social network.

Joel Beinin • 2 min read

MER Article

The People Want

Many of the slogans of the Egyptian revolution have been poetry, and as compositions with rhyme, meter and purpose, they resonate with very old conceptions of lyrical form. But slogans are not literary texts whose meanings can be reduced to a purely semantic level. Most often, they are part of a per

Elliott Colla • 17 min read

Current Analysis

Despair and Continuity

Actions always speak louder than words, even if words also act.

Joshua Stacher • 2 min read

MER Article

Egypt's Generals and Transnational Capital

Before and after the ejection of Husni Mubarak from office, the size of the Egyptian army’s share in the economy has been a subject of great debate. The army is known to manufacture everything from olive oil and shoe polish to the voting booths used in Egypt’s 2011

Joshua Stacher, Shana Marshall • 19 min read

MER Article

Horizontalism in the Egyptian Revolutionary Process

A number of academics, commentators and activists have noted the presence of what one might call “horizontalism” in the Egyptian revolutionary process that started on January 25, 2011: the decentralized or networked form of organizing; the leaderless protest movements; the eschewal of top-down comma

John Chalcraft • 18 min read