Economic interdependence and stability: The failure of US policy in Egypt

Abstract:

This paper argues, with a focus on the final 10 years of the Mubarak regime, that the US policy of using economic interdependence to influence stability in Egypt failed. By assessing the formation of this US policy and the factors concerning US‒Egyptian ties, this paper also provides a better understanding of US policy towards Egypt in general.

The argument is entrenched in the stability through economic interdependence literature and identifies how this case study disproves the positive correlation associated with these two variables. The paper achieves this aim by consulting primary source governmental and non-governmental material, media, analytical and scholarly work concerned with the topic.

Consequently, the paper identifies how and why Egypt’s alignment to the ‘War on Terror’, suppression of political opposition and the run-up to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, led to the US policy failure.