MER Article The Cold Peace March 26, 1985, will mark the sixth anniversary of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, brokered and signed in Washington, the culmination of the “Camp David process.” What have been the consequences of this pact, and where is the peace it was supposed to usher into the region? Joel Beinin • 21 min read
MER Article From the Editors (September/October 1984) This issue examines the political impact of the economic crisis that has wracked Tunisia and Morocco over the first half of this decade. Even as we prepared this issue, the combustible recipe of austerity decrees and popular desperation exploded into violence in neighboring Egypt, in the industrial The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Women and Labor Migration Women are now the heads of between 25 and 35 percent of all households in developing countries. [1] In the Middle East and North Africa, women head about 16 percent of all households. [2] One main reason for the increasing number of households headed by women is male migration to seek work outside t Fatma Khafagy • 13 min read
MER Article Egyptian Migration and Peasant Wives In the 1960s, Egypt supplied the labor markets of the Middle East with professionals and administrators seconded by the government. Carefully regulated and controlled, the export of labor was consistent both with Egypt’s policies in the area and with its own manpower needs. In the 1970s, government- Elizabeth Taylor • 23 min read
MER Article Egyptian Labor Abroad Hardly more than a decade has passed since Egypt’s pioneering emigrants first offered their skills to the nascent development of neighboring Arab countries. Measured against the volume and impact of its labor contributions, this seems a short time indeed. In that time, the limited opportunities once Robert LaTowsky • 21 min read
MER Article Sadat's Legacy, Mubarak's Dilemma For most countries in the Arab oil economy, the years 1982 and 1983 have marked an important moment of truth. The most obvious reason for this has been the decline in oil revenues as a result of falling world demand, cuts in production and the failure to hold the OPEC base price at $34 a barrel. As Roger Owen • 25 min read
MER Article Egypt Gropes for Political Direction No one in Cairo seems at all clear about the present direction of Egyptian politics. The signs are contradictory and difficult to read. On the one hand, the press is freer than at any time since 1952 (and perhaps before), there is a wide-ranging public discussion about major issues, and all recogniz Roger Owen • 7 min read
MER Article Looking for Sadat Square Visiting Egypt this spring -- my first since the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat -- I was immediately struck by the extent to which symbols of the Sadat era had already faded or been pushed into oblivion. Only one small, inconspicuous plaque informs the passerby that Cairo’s main square is “Anwar al Judith Tucker • 3 min read
MER Article The Egyptian Arms Industry Egypt, with the earliest industrial economy in the Middle East, has engaged in some military production for many years, supplying its own armed forces with light arms and small naval ships. Such production remained minor until recently, both in terms of the Egyptian economy and in terms of the arms James Paul • 7 min read
MER Article Egypt's Transition under Nasser Mahmoud Abdel-Fadil, The Political Economy of Nasserism: A Study in Employment and Income Distribution Policies in Urban Egypt, 1952-1972 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). Ellis Goldberg, Joel Beinin • 13 min read
MER Article Sadat's Moment, Egypt's History David Hirst and Irene Beeson, Sadat (London: Faber and Faber, 1981). Ghali Shoukri, Egypte, la contre-revolution (Paris: Editions Le Sycomore, 1979). These two assessments of the past decade in Egypt pose the question of approach: Can we most conveniently comprehend the period by studying the role Judith Tucker • 6 min read
MER Article Sadat's Alter Ego Osman Ahmed Osman, Egypt’s entrepreneurial tycoon, enjoyed a privileged status that cannot be attributed solely to his role as Sadat’s closest confidant, or even to his kinship by marriage with the president. Many Egyptians came to see him as Sadat’s alter ego, minus the latter’s presidential immuni Mohamed Sid-Ahmed • 6 min read
