by Marissa Tjartjalis Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been accused of many things throughout her political career. Yet until her visit to Egypt this past July, being a “Secret Islamist” was not one of them. Pulling up to the Four Seasons in Cairo, however, Clinton encountered a number of surprising allegations. “Hillary Clinton is the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood,” one sign read in the midst of screaming protesters. “Stop the...
Nadine Mansour “The success of our efforts to devise a thoroughly Egyptian model for reform will depend to a large extent on the ability of our political parties to mould themselves into dynamic grassroots forces, thereby stimulating broader public participation in the political process,” wrote Ibrahim Nafie, a columnist for the Al-Ahram weekly newspaper, referring to Egypt’s first multi-candidate elections in 2005. But this comment could not b...
photo from Wikimedia Commons In a series of Middle East diplomatic visits last week, Mohamed Morsi made his first official trip as President of Egypt to Saudi Arabia, and Hillary Clinton met with leaders of Egypt and Israel as part of her last tour as US Secretary of State. Topics on their agendas included financial assistance for Egypt, the rise of political Islam, and the United States’ stance on Egypt’s transition. But at the core of talks r...
Part I of Two Part Series With Egypt’s constitutional assembly beginning the following day, Saturday’s Egypt Symposium, hosted by Turath, the Arab Students Association, could not have been hosted at a better time. The conference, which focused on the Egypt’s post-revolution phase, drew a large crowd of Egyptians, Arabs, and interested non-Arabs from around the Tri-State area to hear from some of Egypt’s biggest political, activist, and artisti...
Hinh’s post hits on most of the key issues related to the role of media, new and old, in the ongoing crisis in Egypt. But events Tuesday have made clear some of the limits of those vectors for change. Starting late Tuesday in Alexandria, reports of pro-Mubarak forces attacking the pro-democracy protesters began to surface. Just who these forces are remains not entirely clear. In all likelihood they are plainclothes police, paid militia, et...
...nerally, politicians in the West plan campaigns strategically, deciding how to use their resources to divide and conquer America’s politically diverse map. Despite the fact that on December 15th and 22nd 2012, the majority of Egyptians who voted said “yes” to constitutional amendments, the governorate and capital city of Cairo voted “no.” Are these conversations on the geography of politics moving to the Middle-East? To call contemporary Egypt a...
From Wikimedia Commons It is a great mistake to suggest simplicity when an issue is obviously complex. Time magazine’s July 9 cover story on the state of Egypt’s rulers boasts the simple and suggestive headline, “The Revolution That Wasn’t.” But while this headline is provocative, it is not nuanced, and it is misleading. The Egyptian revolution very much was. We may be collectively worried about the stability of Egypt’s fledgling democracy, but...
The Columbia Political Review is participating in an Alliance of College Editors forum on the recent Egyptian protests. Here is the first in a series of thoughts and responses from collegiate political writers across the nation. Check back every two days for a new forum response, including responses from students right here at Columbia University. Authoritarian regimes across the Middle East are atremble as popular revolution threatens to engul...
Part II of Two Part Series After a sumptuous dinner and well-deserved break, Hamdy Qandil, the widely respected journalist and Nasserist spoke on the state of the media in Egypt in a talk entitled “Revolutionary Media: The Changing Role of Journalism and Technology.” His talk was filled with personal anecdotes and stories, and the audience’s reaction made clear that, at least among the older members, he was an admired, trustworthy, and familiar...
photo from Wikimedia Commons It was March 2011 and the Egyptian military had assumed executive power in what was dubbed a democratic transition. As I stood next to a military tank, I saw slogans such as “the people and the army are one hand” and believed that military rule was the best alternative to Mubarak. The tanks indicated the military’s role as protector during the transition to democracy, but the military’s actions since have amounted t...
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