Cut Aid to Egypt's Generals

Sarah Chayes Op-Ed June 27, 2012 Los Angeles Times

Summary

In the face of a power grab by its armed forces, the United States should consider suspending some or all of its military aid to Cairo.

Related Topics

Add a comment

Egypt's progress toward democracy over the last 15 months has been raucous, colorful and inevitably complicated. Its dismantling has been dizzyingly swift.

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the parliament, saying electoral rules had been broken. Then the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces exempted itself from civilian oversight and claimed a decisive role in lawmaking and in the drafting of Egypt's constitution. It also assigned a general to "advise" Egypt's new president.

Chayes, formerly special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is an expert in South Asia policy, kleptocracy and anticorruption, and civil-military relations.

Sarah Chayes

Senior Associate
South Asia Program

More from this author...

In the face of this power grab, for the sake of U.S. credibility as well as our long-term interests, the U.S. should suspend some or all of its military aid to Egypt.

The 2012 Appropriations Act stipulates that the U.S. can provide such aid only if the secretary of State certifies to Congress that the Egyptian leadership "is supporting the transition to civilian government, including holding free and fair elections, and implementing ... due process of law." But Congress also left an escape clause. The secretary of State can waive this democratization requirement "in the national security interest of the United States."

That is precisely what happened in March. After intense interagency debate, the requirement was waived, and military assistance is now flowing to Egypt at a rate of $170 million a month.

As painful as a cutoff might be to an outsized military in cash-strapped Egypt, damming the flow won't necessarily curb the ruling generals' actions in the short run. Sheer self-preservation might be a weightier consideration. Since Hosni Mubarak came to power, the military has played a preponderant role in Egypt, enjoying a secretive insulation from the public, little or no governmental oversight and huge economic interests and privileges, including palatial homes on the Mediterranean, free vehicles, vacations, food produced on military farms and high-paid positions in military-owned businesses upon retirement.

Along with toppling Mubarak, the Tahrir Square revolution was aimed at ending such excesses and at laying bare the military's shady workings and inbred structures, and holding perpetrators accountable. Democracy, in other words, personally threatens many Egyptian generals.

These men seem to be gambling that the U.S. will put what it sees as immediate national security objectives ahead of its commitment to fundamental values. There is plenty of evidence to support such a notion. Our equivocal response to the democracy movements in Yemen, where the structures of the old regime remain largely in place, and in Bahrain, where Saudi tanks crushed a peaceful protest movement that mobilized a third of the citizenry, are just the most recent cases in point.

According to media reports of the March interagency deliberations, U.S. domestic economic considerations also influenced the decision to waive the democratization conditions on military aid. "A delay or a cut in ... military aid to Egypt risked breaking existing contracts with American arms manufacturers that could have shut down production lines," the New York Times said on March 23.

Finally, the election as president of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, together with its victory in parliamentary elections, may be cooling the democratic ardor of some in Egypt and the U.S. Some may be breathing a private sigh of relief that the Supreme Council has "saved" Egypt from Islamist rule.

Such an attitude would be shortsighted. A growing body of evidence, from such disparate countries as Afghanistan and Nigeria, suggests a correlation between abusively corrupt regimes and the rise of radical Islam. As demonstrated by Algeria, where a canceled election led to a decade of violence in the 1990s, shutting off legitimate avenues to political and economic inclusiveness is not a good recipe for keeping violent Islamist extremism in check.

The degree to which the U.S. is seen as enabling such abuses of power will determine whether populations around the world see us as hostile to their interests. For these reasons, and because it is time to shift the weight of our aid from military to civilian purposes, continuing to finance the Egyptian generals now would not serve long-term U.S. national interests.

This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.

Comments

Email Updates

Follow the conversation—Sign up to receive email updates when comments are posted to this article. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

Screen Name Email Address* (Nevermind this field if you have CSS turned off)
Subscribe

Comment Policy

Report Abuse

Source: http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/06/27/cut-aid-to-egypt-s-generals/cc2h

More from The Global Think Tank

New Republic

It’s Time to Intervene in Syria

Summary By keeping its word to prevent the Syrian regime from using poison gas, the United States will help the opposition and will be in a better position to influence the eventual outcome without being responsible for it. More >

Foreign Policy

Great Sanhuri’s Ghost!

Summary Egypt’s cataclysmic courtroom battles seem to be giving way to prolonged guerrilla warfare over the judiciary. More >

Above the State: The Officers’ Republic in Egypt

Summary Egypt's civilian authorities are trying to wrest control from a military institution that has been the mainstay of authoritarian power for decades and no less than the fate of Egypt’s transition is at stake. More >

23 Apr 2013

The Stakes in Egypt: Political Action and Democratic Change

Summary Opposition groups in Egypt face a range of challenges amidst the country’s rapidly changing political context. More >

26 Nov 2012

The Pathway to Peace in the Middle East Begins With President Obama

Summary President Obama should focus the resources available to him to actively reengage in efforts to broker peace in the Middle East through a two-state solution that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace and security. More >

15 Nov 2012

Drafting Egypt’s Constitution

Summary The new Egyptian constitution is surrounded by controversy over who should write it, when it should be drafted, and which principles and values it should embody. With a draft already published, debate is as intense as ever. More >

Twitter

@CarnegieEndow

In Fact

70%

of oil consumed in the United States

is for the transportation sector.

20%

of Chechnya’s pre-1994 population

has fled to different parts of the world.

58%

of oil consumed in China

was from foreign sources in 2012.

million cases pending

in India’s judicial system.

million people killed

in Cold War conflicts.

18%

of the U.S. economy

is consumed by healthcare.

$536

billion in goods and services

traded between the United States and China in 2012.

$100

billion in foreign investment and oil revenue

have been lost by Iran because of its nuclear program.

4700%

increase in China’s GDP per capita

between 1972 and today.

$11

billion have been spent

to complete the Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran.

of Iran’s electricity needs

is all the Bushehr nuclear reactor provides.

new airports

are set to be built in China by 2015.

journalists

were imprisoned in Turkey as of August 2012 according to the OSCE.

67%

of the world's population

will reside in cities by 2050.

million Russian citizens

are considered “ethnic Muslims.”

Stay in the Know

Enter your email address in the field below to receive the latest Carnegie analysis in your inbox!

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Regions

Countries