A Bitter Downgrading for Egypt: Forty Years of Rentier Growth, Social Breaking-up and External Dependency
Type de matériel :
15
Since the mid 1970’s, Egypt entered a new era, between economic liberalization and diplomatic steam lining with the West. A first step, under the leadership of Anwar al Sadat, was the peace treaty with Israël and the so-called « infitah » (economic opening), linked with the boom of oil producing countries in the Arabic peninsula and Libya. This orientation, symbolized by the the critics against the Aswan High Dam, legacy of Nasser and the Egypt-Soviet friendship, boosted the urban growth of the country, the mass migration of the youth toward the wealthy neighboring countries, and a political re-islamization, triggering an intense terrorist activity. After the assassination of Anwar al Sadat in October 1981, his successor Hosni Mubarak, follows the same policy. Surfing on a rentier prosperity, he reinforces the socio-spatial rift of the country, through his move to insert Egypt in the globalization process. Therefore, he focuses economic development out of the delta and the Valley, in new towns built in the desert, away from the countryside and the urban chaos of big metropolises, as well as along the Suez canal and the Mediterranean and Red Sea shores. Faced with the growing resistance of the majority of the population, he maintains an authoritarian and repressive regime. On the 25 of January, 2011 bursts an upheaval of the urban youth which, with the support of the Army, ends up with the fall of the regime. But this democratic outcome will be short lived, since the majority represented by the Muslim Brotherhood will prove unable to solve as expected the plagues of Egypt, poverty and unemployment. Under the guidance of General Abdelfattah al Sissi, the Army, being an economic as much as a military actor, swiftly took back the lead of the country. Egypt now seeks its salvation in a close alliance with its financial backers of the Gulf, which are concerned by an alarming regional context.
Réseaux sociaux