by MAGED MANDOUR & HOSSAM EL-HAMALAWY
Why the Egyptian military regime is more powerful — and more brutal — than its predecessors
It has been over a decade since a military coup in Egypt definitely quashed the hopes inspired by the Arab Spring. Led by officers under the command of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the regime he subsequently constructed consolidated itself on a foundation of mass repression and debt-fuelled infrastructure projects that systematically funnel money to the ruling elite while impoverishing wide swathes of the population.
How were Egypt’s revolutionary ambitions so decisively snuffed out? And what makes the new regime so ironclad and impervious to opposition? Hossam el-Hamalawy spoke with Maged Mandour, author of Egypt under El-Sisi: A Nation on the Edge, about the political economy of Egypt’s military dictatorship and why he believes Sisi will be much more difficult to topple than any of the strongmen who came before him.
Can you tell us what your new book is about, and what knowledge gaps it aims to fill?
The book looks at the emergence of the Sisi regime as a new phenomenon in Egyptian politics. Simply put, I argue that the regime represents a complete break with all post-1952 regimes. It is the first time that Egypt is ruled directly by the military, with no mass party or facade to counterbalance its dominance. It has led to a complete militarization of the state, political system, and economy.
This hyper-concentration of power has bred one of the most violent and radical regimes in the Middle East. As far as I know, mine is the first book looking exclusively at the Sisi regime, trying to chart its evolution, from the political, economic, and social perspectives.
How is Sisi’s regime different from its predecessors?
The hyper-concentration of power in the hands of the military has not only led to the complete closure of public space, but also to a fully militarized political system and economy — a new mode of militarized state capitalism, with devastating consequences for the poor and the middle class.
This, however, was only possible through the emergence of a revamped form of ideological justification for military rule, what I call a “Sisified version of Nasserism”. This ideological construct views the nation as an organic whole, an ethereal entity that has existed for thousands of years, with the military at the helm. It makes opposition to the military regime equivalent to national treason, which hence must be repressed. This proto-fascist ideology is augmented, and the explosive mix completed, by conspiracy theories of the fifth column, cosmic conspiracies against the state, and fourth- and fifth-generation wars.
This paved the way for a tidal wave of repression that is yet to abate, which was also fuelled by mass popular participation, what I term “societal repression”. The tactic is simple, yet devastating. Sisi has a skill for popular mobilization, using what can only be termed mass hysteria and blood lust, fuelled by his propaganda machine, for his mass repression. That has created a strong bond between him and his base, allowing him to claim that repression has a popular mandate — the ideal setting for a mass bloodletting the likes of which Egypt had not seen since the founding of the modern Egyptian state.
You write extensively on Egypt’s repressive apparatus. Why has the country seen such a high level of lethal and carceral violence since 2013?
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