Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution | John R. Bradley

Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution | John R. Bradley | Egypt today

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Inside Egypt: The ...

	Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution John R. Bradley Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Five decades after Nasser and the Free Officers overthrew the British-backed monarchy in a dramatic coup d'état, the future of Egypt grows more uncertain by the day. John Bradley examines the junctions of Egyptian politics and society as they slowly disintegrate under the twin pressures of a ruthless military dictatorship at home and a flawed Middle East policy in Washington. Inside Egypt is a tour-de-force of the most brutal Arab state where torture and corruption are endemic--but one that is also a key U.S. all and a historic regional trendsetter. This uniquely insightful book brings to vivid life Egypt's competing identities and political trends, as the Mubarak dynasty struggles to resolve a succession crisis and the disciplined Islamists wait patiently in the wings for a chance to seize power.

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excellent introduction

This is the perfect volume if you are looking for one book to read before visiting Egypt, or just to get a handle on the country. It is smoothly written, combining journalistic reporting with historical and political analysis. He is deeply critical of the state of Egyptian politics and society, and of official Western approaches to that country, but those criticisms ring true.

Egypt today

A great read for Anyone who wants to know the state of Egypt today. Banned in Egypt for that reason??

Bradley does it again

I am a college student studying the Middle East and I was in Model UN group and was Saudi Arabia when I firs discovered Bradley. That book gave great insight that helped my debating at the conference. Now he has come back with an even better book about a more important country, I would argue at least, with "Inside Egypt." He discusses many topics that are prevalent in Egypt and are rarely discussed in Egypt on any public forum. This gives you great insight to a country that in due time will become one of many forms, depending on how much deeper the problems get, which from the likes of it is very far.

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Insightful

Mr. Bradley writes a very telling portrait of modern Egypt, a country which has been ruled by a military oligarchy since 1953. The corruption, poverty and oppression which are hallmarks of the regime are discussed in detail and personal anecdotes are used whenever possible. The writing style makes the subject matter very easy to get through even if you are not an Islamophile or have never been to Egypt.

Many of the interviews and anecdotes took place in 2007, the same year I was assigned to duty in Egypt. Many of the experiences he had in Egypt are typical and I also had many similar experiences or knew people who did. Yes, Egyptians will not hesitate to tell you that they hate Mubarak and I also learned from Egyptians I met of the near-universal perception that Mubarak intends to have his son follow him into office. I wish the author had also mentioned the extensive cult of personality surrounding Mubarak and how his image seems to be everywhere... even if it gets vandalized in remoter parts of the country. And baksheesh is rampant in the country... I once had to pay a parking attendant a small wad of notes for helping me get out of my reserved parking space... he had allowed another vehicle to park too close to the front of my machine. Events that I could "verify" with my own experiences made the book real to me.

On the other hand, the author did not fully discuss the problems involved in removing food subsidies, political pluralism or the legitimate terror threat that hangs over Egypt. Also, the author feels it necessary to compare the routine torture that takes place in Egyptian police stations to Abu Ghraib... where no physical torture took place despite the images on the internet. He also feels it necessary to denigrate the Coalition effort to bring democracy in Iraq. The author bemoans the lack of democracy in Egypt but in none of the instances he mentions Iraq does he talk about the successful elections there.

Egypt's future is uncertain and this book definitely gives you a feeling for the disaster that looms on the horizon when Mubarak passes on.

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Egypt: Just What You'd Expect

John R. Bradley's 'Inside Egypt' is a journalistic account of contemporary Egypt. It is interesting but hardly surprising. At great length, using multiple examples, it tells us what we already knew about Egypt. Egypt is a poor nation, becoming more radically Islamist each passing day, governed by a corrupt, incompetent and selfish regime which strangles reform and resists change.

For the most part, Bradley eschews analysis for reporting, but what he reports about is depressingly self evident given the general outline. Many of the chapters come with self explanatory titles "Torture" and "Corruption", for example. Minorities, whether the Bedouin (in Sinai) or the Copts (in Egypt proper), are abysmally treated.

There is an interesting chapter, euphemistically titled "Lost Dignity", about the Egyptiam sex industry in its various forms, particularly in that of the "marriage" of Old Western ladies to younger Egyptians, and of male prostitution. It is possibly the most penetrating part of Bradley's book, because it shows that even sex work is shaped by the cultural and religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Even as they make their livelihood from sex, Egyptians maintain a semblance, no matter how twisted, of traditional gender roles and sexual mores.

But for Westerners, most interesting is the political agenda. And Bradley is in a catch 22: his instinct, as summarized by a blurb contribution from the managing editor of Foreign Affair, is to "love [the] country but hate [the] regime". Bradley's sympathies are clearly with the Egyptian people, and against Hosni Mubarak and his government. But as Bradley acknowledges, the Egyptian people are considerably more anti-Western than the regime. The most popular Middle East leaders are Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Mahmood Ahmadinejad, the radical president of Iran (p. 89). As Bradley puts it, "The sickness... runs not just through the system but through the whole of society" (p.145).

The Egyptian people are against America, and who can blame them? Their dictatorial government is an American dependency. Being subordinate to the United State is an afford to the Egyptian's pride; Being repressed by America's agent is a legitimate grievance.

And of course, the Mubarak regime encourages the antagonism. It allows the fundamentalist Muslim Brothers opposition some freedom, while suppressing the secular democratic opposition. This has several advantages - it creates the illusion of openness, gives the Islamists a reason to cooperate with the state, and most importantly, offers leverage against the United States.

Because, as Bradley acknowledges, in the Middle East, the United States' foreign policy is aimed at attaining two mutually exclusive goals: democracy and stability. But these can not be achieved simultaneously. If America were to pressure Egypt to democratize, it would undermine Egypt, and thus the entire Middle East.

(The fact that Bradley identifies the trade off is significant in and of itself. Some Middle East expert think you can have you cake and eat it too. See for example Amitai Etzioni's Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy)

Between stability and democracy, Bradley is firmly on the side of the latter. "Washington must think long term" (p. 227).

But as John Maynard Keynes reminded us, in the long run, we're all dead. What Bradley does not stress is that Egypt is a spectacular case of successful American diplomacy. For a relatively cheap 2 billion U$ annually, America has got the traditional Arab powerhouse as a staunch allay. For over thirty years, Egypt has been in peace with Israel; It is a moderate force in Arab politics and an ally in the so-called "War on Terror".

This comes at the expense of the Egyptian people, who live under a brutal dictatorship. But America's foreign policy is aimed at promoting the welfare of Americans, not Egyptians. And even if America wanted to do something to democratize Egypt, it can't. Pressure on the regime would only make Egypt uncooperative; Egypt would give a freer hand to its local al-Qaeda supporters and diminish cooperation in the struggle against terrorism. Egypt's president would make anti American statements and increase his popularity. And if America were to risk its national security interests in pursuit of Egyptian democracy, it would risk an Iranian style Islamist revolution in Egypt, which would make Egypt's liberal forces nostalgic to Mubarak's autocracy.

The only reason America should change course in its Egyptian policy is if changed circumstances require rethinking this policy. Bradley's most bizarre notion is that Egypt is nearing the end of a 30 years cycle of relative unrest, and is facing a period of tribulations like the ones it faced in the 1920s, 1950s and 1970s. This is mistaking a coincidence for a pattern.

A more likely source of instability in the regime is the possibility of a succession crisis when Hosni Mubarak (aged eighty), departs the scene, and his son Gamal takes over. But recent generational changes in Morocco and in Syria went smoothly enough, and the presidency moved between Egypt three post revolution presidents (Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak) without incident.

History tells us that dictatorships, no matter how strong they look, are brittle things. They may collapse without warning. Yet in an region full of extreme and dangerous enemies, Egypt's dictatorship, against the wishes of Egypt's people, remains an American ally. Supporting a pro-American autocracy in Egypt is a necessary evil.

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