Overview

An account of Egypt's foreign policy decline following the Arab Uprisings, explaining the causes, consequences, and dynamics of this decline. Egypt, traditionally an important regional power in the Middle East, has experienced a considerable decline in its national capabilities and regional influence since 2011, which has had significant implications for Egypt’s relations with other regional powers. Here Nael Shama identifies the causes of this decline, which include Egypt’s economic downturn, deficiencies of its decision-making structures, and shifting regional power balances. The study draws on a number of regional case studies – such as the erosion of Egypt’s interests in the Nile Basin and the Middle East – to illustrate Egypt’s declining diplomatic power along its own borders, and in the wider region. Shama offers a crucial lens into enhancing our understanding of the multiple levels of engagement Egypt has in the Middle East, and the widespread consequences of its decline in influence, while also offering a valuable case study of how declining powers think and act on the international stage.

Full Product Details

9780755655397

Table of Contents

Reviews

This book deals with a pivotal country in a very prominent region , and especially with a recent period that is still very much under-published. It nicely clarifies and links dominant concepts of foreign policy analysis to contemporary events and is nicely-written . A must read. -- Bahgat Korany, Director of AUC Forum and Professor of International Relations and Political Economy at The American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt A useful analysis of Egypt’s declining regional power in the Middle East and Nile basin well illustrated through case studies of Egyptian-Ethiopian relations concerning the GERD, Egypt’s relative power vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia (e.g., Tiran and Sanafir) and the UAE in the region since 2011, and Red Sea security issues. The book also asks - and answers - how Egypt has responded to its relative decline in power. The answer, I am afraid, is not very effectively. -- Samer Shehata, Colin & Patricia Molina de Mackey Associate Professor of Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma, US

Author Information

Nael Shama is a political scholar, writer, and essayist who focuses on the international relations of the Middle East. Shama is the author of Egyptian Foreign Policy from Mubarak to Morsi (2013 and 2019), Egypt before Tahrir (2014), The Stagnant River (2016), and The Mirrors of Mirage: Deconstructing Arab Political Consciousness (2024).

Tab Content 6

Countries Available