Source: Brookings Institute
Author(s): Shadi Hamid
Original Link: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2015/08/07/sisis-regime-is-a-gift-to-the-islamic-state/
Editor’s note: By any measurable standard, Egypt is more vulnerable to violence and insurgency today than it had been before the Arab Spring. Since the overthrow of former President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, Egypt has seen shocking levels of repression. In Shadi Hamid’s August 6 piece in Foreign Policy, Hamid makes the argument that the end result of the Egyptian coup turned out to be a gift to the Islamic State group.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power on a classic strongman platform. He was no liberal or democrat — and didn’t claim to be — but promised stability and security at a time when most Egyptians had grown exhausted from the uncertainties of the Arab Spring.
Increasingly, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration seems to accept this premise. In the span of the past week, the United States has deliveredeight F-16s to Egypt, relaunched the U.S.-Egypt “strategic dialogue,” and said it would resume “Bright Star,” the joint military exercise suspended after the military coup of July 3, 2013.
Sisi’s raison d’être of security and stability, however, has been undermined with each passing month…
Read more at Original Link.