Prof Michael C. Hudson gives a nice background for how Egypt has been a point of stability for the US and Israel in the region.
To follow up on our class discussion about Egypt: What are the missed opportunities for PD in Egypt during these last weeks? What are the options going forward?
From a government to government standpoint:
One thought- if we set the precedent of supporting a leader and then pulling our support, who will trust us? The US leadership has accepted certain regimes because of how they think those leaders will support US interests. If the US government pulls that backing, future leaders will wonder about the sincerity of the formal exchanges of support. Ultimately, for long-term diplomacy and stability, our top leaders should make sure to support leaders that are backed by their own people.
From a government to public standpoint:
What has the US been doing in the past to show the Egyptian people that the US is supportive of their economic and social needs? From a PD standpoint?
During the demonstrations, the US government has certainly not been expressing support except in vague terms. I especially noticed the State Department did not step in to ensure access to the Internet, which was in contrast to how they made sure Twitter was working for the Iranians during the elections. This does not send a signal of support to the people who are protesting.
From a public to public standpoint: during these last weeks? What are the options going forward?
How have NGOs and the private sector been reaching out to the Egyptian people? I know some groups, such as moveon.org, sent open letters of support that were printed in local papers. But, I wonder how this kind of action helps if our government doesn’t then follow up with action.
Check out this blog from Darren Krape on his November visit to Cairo. He has his power point linked as well from the presentation he gave on social media. It sounds like he had interesting discussions, the kind that do create more understanding, hopefully. He works for the Department of State.
I had to copy this image from his site:
I think, politically, this is still a really sensitive issue, and pretty much a Catch 22 for US politicians. But, it still could be handled better!
ReplyDeleteGov't to gov't: There is already precedent for the US to back an unpopular Middle East leader because it "promotes stability" until it doesn't suit our purposes anymore (See: Iraq Part I), but its still surprising that collective memory seems to be a little forgetful in this case. Given the reportedly close relationship between our militaries, it’s a good thing that that the military has stayed neutral because that situation could have made things worse, diplomatically speaking, very quickly. As is, the US mostly got to save face with Mubarak.
Gov’t to public: I think the worst part of the US PD to Egypt over the past two weeks was not that we did or didn’t show support, but that it took so long to hear any official answer, and then politicians seemed to waffle on which side they were betting on. No one likes a loser, but they like a fair-weather fan even less.
I don’t think we can really compare the Iranian Twitter case to Egypt because the former was a situation where the server was in US control, and Twitter just needed a little persuasion to keep up and running. The Egyptian ISPs were shut down on their own sovereign soil…and Google & Twitter (et al) still got together to make a work-around of voice-tweets available to the people. Regardless of the technical differences, though, the US government didn’t make any measure of support for the people, especially when compared to the person to person and NGO support from the US.
People-to-people; NGOs: Maybe DC is a little more interested than the rest of the country, but my facebook newsfeed was full of local protests and support for Egypt. I think these grassroots events and statements did a much better job of interfacing with Egyptians (from a US perspective, with some Egyptian feedback) than the US government, but of course, without the political ramifications as well.
I actually give the most credit to the journalists on this one. Al Jazeera, it goes without saying, did a comprehensive job of providing a range of on the ground reporting. The US media also stepped up, though, sending in big name reporters (who got hit with stuff a lot, and sometimes arrested) and spent a fair amount of time on coverage (after the first few days…maybe it took awhile to find Egypt on a map?) that, despite its slightly different slant when compared to Al Jazeera, still got good on the ground interviews. A few NYT and WaPo articles were even willing to go out on a limb and extrapolate effects of Tunisian and Egyptian protests on the governments of other Mid East states. Now that public attention seems to have waned (again, according to my facebook feed) but maybe US PD can pick up the slack.
Love the cartoon, Willow!
ReplyDelete