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451. Privatisation in the Meda Region

Author:
Celine Kauffmann and Lucia Wegner
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
This paper builds on a new database (PRIVMEDA) in order to assess the progress of the privatisation process in the MEDA countries of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The first part of the paper offers an overview of the privatisation record from 1990 to 2006. It shows that, as in other parts of the world, the first wave of privatisations in the 1990s, which focused almost exclusively on profit-making enterprises in the tourism, transport, food and construction material sectors, slowed down towards the early 2000s and rebounded in 2005 when larger utilities where earmarked for sale. The second part of the paper assesses the outcome of the privatisation process in light of three key objectives: fiscal proceeds, economic efficiency and the development of the local private sector. It concludes that privatisation in the MEDA region can successfully promote efficiency and private sector development only when embedded in a package of measures, including the setting up of a proper regulatory framework, the improvement of the business climate and the liberalisation of financial markets.
Topic:
Privatization, Tourism, Regulation, and Financial Markets
Political Geography:
Turkey, Israel, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Malta

452. The Saudi Labyrinth: Evaluating the Current Political Opening

Author:
Amr Hamzawy
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented political dynamism in Saudi Arabia. Since 2002, the government has pursued various reform policies. Its most relevant measures have included reforming the Shura Council, holding municipal elections, legalizing civil society actors, implementing educational reform plans, and institutionalizing national dialogue conferences. Although these measures appear less significant when compared with political developments in other Arab countries, such as Lebanon and Egypt, they constitute elements of a meaningful opening in Saudi authoritarian politics.</p
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Egypt

453. Evaluating Egyptian Reform

Author:
Michele Dunne
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The political opening that began in late 2004 in Egypt has been unlike any seen in the country in at least twenty years, perhaps in a half century. It has resulted so far in Egypt holding its first-ever presidential election as well as parliamentary elections that were significantly fairer and more transparent than in the past, although marred by violence. Political dissidents are making bolder demands, most of the taboos on criticizing the regime have been swept away, and there is now more opposition representation in Parliament than at any time since the 1952 Free Officers' coup. The Muslim Brotherhood, an illegal organization but also the only effective opposition party, made dramatic gains in the fall 2005 elections. Yet many observers inside and outside Egypt view the political reform steps made in 2004 and 2005 as no more than cosmetic measures taken to preserve rather than change an essentially authoritarian order. Has Egypt entered an era of irreversible momentum toward democratization, or is it merely undergoing a brief liberal episode that will not fundamentally change the way political power is exercised?
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa and Egypt

454. Urban Studies in Cairo, Egypt

Author:
Dominique Harre-Rogers
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Greater Cairo Region's population of about 19 million places it among the twenty largest cities in the world. The making of the 'polynucleated' urban region was fast. Restricted up to mid-20th century to what is now the downtown area, the medieval core and the ancient village of Gizah, the city's total built area quadrupled between 1945 and 1982 (El-Kadi 1987). With 4% annual growth in the 1960s-1970s, the city incorporated old suburbs and satellite towns (Maadi, Helwan, Heliopolis), spilled across the Nile and expanded north and west into the desert and the agricultural lands of the Nile Delta valley, swallowing several villages in the process.2 In the mid-1980s, the mega-city entered a new phase and population growth slowed significantly, falling below Egypt's national rate of growth
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, and Egypt

455. "Disproportionate" Criticism - Israel Will Not Back Down, and Europe Owes Its Thanks

Author:
Joshua Muravchik
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
No sooner had Israel raised its hand in self- defense when Finland, speaking as the rotating president of the European Union, denounced it for “the disproportionate use of force.” This position, echoed by France, Spain, the United Nations, and others, is wrong legally, morally, and strategically. From a legal standpoint, Israel is the victim of multiple unprovoked aggressions. It withdrew entirely from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005. (Both of these occupations had come about as acts of self-defense: the former against rocket fire from Lebanon in 1982, and the latter against a war of annihilation declared by Egypt in 1967.) From the time of its withdrawal from Gaza, not a single day had passed without rockets being fired into Israel. Now from the north as well as the south, Israel finds hundreds of rockets being fired across its border. Even if these were aimed at military installations, it would be a clear-cut act of war. To make it worse, these rockets are aimed randomly at cities and other civilian population centers, making them not only acts of war but war crime.
Topic:
International Relations and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Israel, Finland, France, Gaza, Spain, Lebanon, and Egypt

456. Iran Against the Arabs

Author:
Michael Rubin
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
After Hamas kidnapped nineteen-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25, Israeli forces launched an assault on Gaza to win his release. Arab condemnation was swift. Saudi Arabia's pro- government al-Jazira daily called Israel “a society of terrorists.” Egypt's state-controlled al-Gumhuriyah condemned Israel's “heinous crimes” in Gaza. Following a July 8 meeting in Tehran, foreign ministers from countries neighboring Iraq denounced the “brutal Israeli attacks.”
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, Gaza, Arab Countries, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

457. Darfur and the Arab League

Author:
Robert O. Collins
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On August 20, 2006, the Arab League committee on Sudan backed Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir's refusal of a UN peacekeeping force in the war-wracked Darfur region. At the UN Security Council, the only open critic of the proposal to send such a force is Qatar, the only Arab member of the Council. Within the week, President Bush responded by sending Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Fraser to Khartoum as his special envoy carrying a personal letter to al-Bashir urging him to permit the presence of a robust UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. This decision by the Arab League has been a discouraging development, given that in June, Arab League secretary-general Amr Musa had urged Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers to replace the fragile 7,000-person African Union (AU) African Mission in the Sudan (AMIS). The Arab League's position represents a stark about-face. In the past, the Arab League had supported Sudan's refusal to agree to a UN peacekeeping force. The change of heart exposed the ambiguities that have long characterized relations between Sudan and the Arab League—particularly Sudan's neighbors Libya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Topic:
Peace Studies and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Libya, Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

458. Free Trade Agreements: The Quiet Economic Track of U.S. Middle East Policy

Author:
Jonathan Powell
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
In January, the United States halted talks on free trade with Egypt to protest the Egyptian government's imprisonment of Ayman Nour, a leading opposition figure who challenged President Hosni Mubarak in September 2005 presidential elections. Washington made no formal announcement, perhaps hoping to avoid open confrontation with Cairo, and in doing so missed an opportunity to highlight its growing success in negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) with U.S. allies in the region.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Washington, Middle East, and Egypt

459. Egyptian Youth and the European Eldorado. Journeys of Hope and Despair

Author:
Ayman Zohry
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In this paper, I explore characteristics of Egyptian irregular migrants to Europe and reasons of irregular migration from the point of departure through a field survey in some Egyptian villages known of sending irregular – as well as regular - migrants to Italy and France (mainly). The fieldwork was carried out in eight Egyptian governorates to identify the push factors in the country, with particular attention to the dynamics governing the irregular migratory flows from Egypt to the EU. The research focuses on the broad dimensions of migration, both legal and illegal, towards the northern shores of the Mediterranean. The research further tries to define the socio-political and economic environment in which the decision to migrate mature. The survey gathered information about the level of awareness of potential migrants about irregular migration and migrants smuggling from Egypt. The results of the filed survey indicates that the vast majority of youth who want to migrate to Europe as well as current migrants intend to return to Egypt after a temporary stay in the countries of destination. Inspite of the fact that the legal framework for migrants to the Arab Gulf countries – the traditional destination of temporary Egyptian migration - is very different to the legal framework in Europe, these findings suggest that the Egyptian migration to Europe is a re-production of the pattern of Egyptian migration to the Arab Gulf countries, where young males migrate to achieve specific financial goals and then they return to Egypt. With respect to the reason for migration, the study indicated that the main reason behind migration is the lack of employment job opportunities in Egypt, especially among fresh graduates and the low wages and salaries in Egypt.
Topic:
Civil Society and Migration
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Egypt

460. Parties of Power as Roadblocks to Democracy: The Cases of Ukraine and Egypt

Author:
Madalena Resende and Hendrik Kraetzschmar
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Political parties are the backbone of any functioning representative democracy. They are the agents that compete in the political arena for public office by offering programmatic alternatives to voters. It is not surprising therefore that an analysis of countries that have failed to democratise shows political parties suffering from a severe pathology that renders them weak institutions. In both the eastern and the southern neighbourhood of the EU, a type of party has emerged, the 'party of power' characterised by its dependence on the state, the absence of ideology and the linkage with specific sectoral groups. Examples of such parties can be found in Ukraine during the reign of President Kuchma and in present-day Egypt.
Topic:
Democratization
Political Geography:
Africa, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Egypt