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442. Water, Conflict, and Cooperation: Lessons From the Nile River Basin
- Author:
- Patricia Kameri-Mbote
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- In 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” In 1988 then-Egyptian Foreign Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who later became the United Nations' Secretary-General, predicted that the next war in the Middle East would be fought over the waters of the Nile, not politics. Rather than accept these frightening predictions, we must examine them within the context of the Nile River basin and the relationships forged among the states that share its waters.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Egypt
443. New Challenges for Peacekeeping: the “War on Terror”
- Author:
- Richard Gowan and Ian Johnstone
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Efforts to predict the future of peacekeeping almost always prove to be unsuccessful. In 1958, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld reported to the General Assembly on the lessons of the UN Emergency Force deployed to Egypt during the Suez crisis two years before. He surrounded his observations with qualifications, as some “circumstances are of such a nature that it could not reasonably be expected that they would often be duplicated elsewhere. Nor can it be assumed that they provide a sufficient basis to warrant indiscriminate projection of the UNEF experience in planning for future United Nations operations of this kind.” Sure enough, when the UN began to deploy to the Congo two years later, the 1958 report was to prove “not especially pertinent” to the task at hand.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- Egypt
444. Egypt: Security, Political, and Islamist Challenges
- Author:
- Sherifa Zuhur
- Publication Date:
- 09-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
- Abstract:
- This monograph approaches three issues in contemporary Egypt: failures of governance and political development, the continued strength of Islamism, and counterterrorism. It is easier to tackle their contours in Egypt if they are considered separately. They are not, however, separate or independent; continuing to treat them as mutually exclusive conditions will lead to further crisis down the road.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Islam, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States, Arabia, and Egypt
445. Egypt's Sinai Question
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Terrorism returned to Egypt in 2004 after an absence of seven years with successive attacks and the emergence of a heretofore unknown movement in Sinai. The government's reaction essentially has been confined to the security sphere: tracking down and eliminating the terrorists. Egyptian and international NGOs have focused on the human rights violations which have been prominent in police procedures. The media have been preoccupied with whether al-Qaeda was responsible. Both the state's response and wider public discussion have been confined to the surface of events and have ignored the socio-economic, cultural and political problems which are at the heart of Sinai's disquiet. The emergence of a terrorist movement where none previously existed is symptomatic of major tensions and conflicts in Sinai and, above all, of its problematic relationship to the Egyptian nation-state. Unless these factors are addressed effectively, there is no reason to assume the terrorist movement can be eliminated.
- Topic:
- Government, Non-Governmental Organization, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- North Africa, Egypt, and Hiroshima
446. Democracy Demotion in Egypt: Is the United States a Willing Accomplice?
- Author:
- Andrew Exum and Zack Snyder
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- On December 26, 2006, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak proposed a package of amendments to the Egyptian constitution with the purported aim of introducing more democratic freedom into Egypt's sclerotic political system. In effect, however, these "reforms" will serve only to strengthen the ruling party's stranglehold on Egyptian politics and send Egypt farther down the road toward authoritarian rule. On Monday, March 26, after minimal public debate, the Egyptian populace will vote on this package of amendments through referendum. Opposition groups are expected to boycott the vote.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Democratization
- Political Geography:
- United States, North Africa, and Egypt
447. Internet Freedom in the Middle East: Challenges for U.S. Policy
- Author:
- Andrew Exum
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- On February 22, Egyptian blogger Abdul Karim Suleiman was sentenced to four years in prison for messages posted on his personal website. Suleiman, who blogs under the name Kareem Amer, was a student at Cairo's al-Azhar University when he posted comments deemed by Egyptian authorities as blaspheming Islam, inciting sedition, and insulting President Hosni Mubarak. For the first two offenses, he drew three years' imprisonment; for the third, an additional year. Among other things, Suleiman posted comments harshly critical of Muslims in his native Alexandria during their violent 2005 clashes with Coptic Christians. He also labeled his conservative religious university "the university of terrorism" and called Mubarak a "dictator."
- Topic:
- Civil Society and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States, Middle East, North Africa, and Egypt
448. International Intervention in Gaza: Options and Obstacles
- Author:
- Scott Lasensky
- Publication Date:
- 06-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- The international response to the Hamas takeover of Gaza has largely focused on building support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, including announcements by the United States and the EU that the 15-month aid embargo was ending, with assistance to be channeled through the "emergency" government led by Salam Fayyad. But the Hamas takeover has also led to a variety of calls for greater international intervention in Gaza, well beyond the work of the UN and other aid agencies, the Egyptian mediation team, and the European Union monitoring force at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention and International Relations
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arab Countries, and Egypt
449. Rural Childhoods in Egypt's Desert Lands
- Author:
- Hanne Kirstine Adriansen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Based on fieldwork in Egypt's desert lands, this paper discusses rural childhoods in an area experiencing rapid social and cultural change. Since 1987, the Egyptian Government has made new villages in the desert as a means to increase agricultural production and solving problems of unemployment. Many settlers move to the Mubarak villages in order to give their children a good start in life. The desert villages are associated with a type of 'rural idyll'. The process of settling in the desert impacts upon the children's possible pathways to adulthood and their identities and social relationships. Not only do the children grow up in a different physical context, they are also exposed to new norms, values and behaviour that influences their everyday life and shape their identity. Especially the change from living in large, extended families to living in nuclear families as well as women's new roles impact upon the children's lives. The social contexts shaping the desert childhoods are in some ways more similar to contexts in 'developed' countries than in other parts of rural Egypt. The paper ends up by contrasting ideas of rural childhoods in Egypt with those found in 'developed' countries.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Civil Society, and Development
- Political Geography:
- North Africa and Egypt
450. Germany's Involvement in Extraordinary Renditions and Its Responsibility under International Law
- Author:
- Laura Tate Kagel
- Publication Date:
- 12-2007
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- German Politics and Society
- Institution:
- German Politics and Society Journal
- Abstract:
- As investigative journalists and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) increasingly uncover the nature and scope of a U.S. government program known for transferring terrorist suspects outside of normal legal and administrative channels, the role of European states has come under scrutiny. To a large degree, these states have erected a “wall of fog,” as a report from the German Institute of Human Rights describes it, blocking access to information that would allow for independent assessments of the human rights implications of the counterterrorism practice known as “extraordinary rendition.”
- Topic:
- International Law and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Germany, and Egypt