Militarizing the Nation: The Army, Business, and Revolution in Egypt

by Zeinab Abul-Magd

Egypt's army portrays itself as a faithful guardian "saving the nation." Yet saving the nation has meant militarizing it. Zeinab Abul-Magd examines both the visible and often invisible efforts by Egypt's semiautonomous military to hegemonize the country's politics, economy, and society over the past six decades. The Egyptian army has adapted to and benefited from crucial moments of change. It weathered the transition to socialism in the 1960s, market consumerism in the 1980s, and neoliberalism from the 1990s onward, all while enhancing its political supremacy and expanding a mammoth business empire. Most recently, the military has fought back two popular uprisings, retained full power in the wake of the Arab Spring, and increased its wealth.

While adjusting to these shifts, military officers have successfully transformed urban milieus into ever-expanding military camps. These spaces now host a permanent armed presence that exercises continuous surveillance over everyday life. Egypt's military business enterprises have tapped into the consumer habits of the rich and poor alike, reaping unaccountable profits and optimizing social command. Using both a political economy approach and a Foucauldian perspective, Militarizing the Nation traces the genealogy of the Egyptian military for those eager to know how such a controversial power gains and maintains control.

Genres: Egypt, Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

Published March 21, 2017

About the author

Georgetown University, Department of History, Washington, DC PhD, July 2008 (focusing on socio-economic history)
American University in Cairo, Egypt
Research Fellow at Economic and Business History Research Center; Summer 2005 - Fall 2006

Georgetown University, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Washington, DC MA in Arab Studies, Thesis in Islamic Law, May 2003

Cairo University, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo, Egypt

MA in Political Science candidate, 1997-2001

Cairo University, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo, Egypt

B.S. in Political Science, 1992-1996

Reviews

[نهى خالد · Rating 5 out of 5]

عظمة

[Sara Razek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars only for this book which needed serious editing to be done. Also, the book’s information tended to be more on the gossipy, non-academic side.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

The text might be relevant if you want to know more about Egypt's recent history and don't know much. Sadly the text is tainted by a religious agenda. This way Egypt was not a Marxist state. I don't even recall the word being used in the text. It is socialist that is used. And for that Abul-Magd employs Focault to create something better: state capitalism. Which resembles a lot Stalinism. Than, following the current Marxist dogma, the military nomenklatura becomes neoliberal.

On the plus side, Abul-Magd avoid the nationalist stance: what has the West ever done for us?

On the minus side, the book is limited to what the title says: The Army, Business and Revolution in Egypt. It is only a description, a radiography, and nothing more.

[Mesut Bostancı · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’d think a book about the Egyptian military would just be a repeat of everything you already know about Egyptian history. But this book was so completely full of insights and a whole new perspective for understanding all of Egyptian modern history, so good and necessary!!!

[Julian Mydlil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sort of knew how entrenched the Egyptian military is, but this book did a great job at thoroughly explaining how the military has pretty much taken over the country's economy and political affairs (no matter who's in charge).

[Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet the military’s backing of or at least neutrality toward the revolution is a necessary condition for revolutionary success. P.24

the Palestine war and the defeat of Arab armies by Israel in 1948 was the main trigger behind the sudden wave of coups in Syria and Egypt because of officers’ grievances against civilian governments, and Kemal Ataturk of Turkey was already a popular model for Arab officers to follow. P.37

In return for this constantly flowing aid -in 1980s-, the United States had specific, regional expectations of Egypt. The long list included assisting in protection of the oil-producing Arab states; containing the radical Palestinian front and persuading the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to sit at the negotiating table for long-term Israeli security; targeting radical Muammar Qadhafi’s Libya, an armed Soviet ally; watching Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, a recipient of heavy Soviet military aid that regularly intervened in Lebanon; targeting the new Islamic republic in Iran, and maintaining good and militarily cooperative relations with Sudan to counter Qadhafi’s influence. P.77

the brothers’ desire to work with the IMF to continue with the market economy policies, the brothers posed no threat to the American economic model. P.203

[Mills College Library]

962.05 A166 2017