Egypt’s Economic Challenge

Egyptian Pound Free Falls Since IMF Loan. People turn to Banque Misr and the National Bank to buy three-year savings certificates, April 2023, Cairo, Egypt. Photo credit: Mahmoud Elkhwas via Reuters Connect

Egypt’s army specializes in executing set-piece operations. In 1973, the army had the idea of using water cannons to dissolve parts of Israel’s defensive line on the Suez Canal, huge sand berms erected to prevent an Egyptian assault into Sinai. The Egyptian army did in a few short hours what Israeli planners thought would take […]

The Abraham Accords at Year Two: A Work Plan for Strengthening and Expansion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO / Latin America News Agency via Reuters Connect

Although it was not the Biden administration that fathered the Abraham Accords, it proved willing to adopt them—hoping, with this endorsement, to assuage the dismay felt by many in the region with other aspects of its policy. Still, the president has done little, so far, to promote the Accords and their expansion. Moreover, the weakening […]

The ASEAN Model: A Vision of Middle East Integration Beyond the Abraham Accords

Asean Summit in Bangkok (top) and The Negev Summit in Sde Boker (bottom). Photos credit: Koki Kataoka / The Yomiuri Shimbun, REUTERS

The summit of foreign ministers came together on relatively short notice. It was unstructured, informal, with little of the staff work or pre-negotiation that normally precedes such gatherings. The agenda was slim and general, and the outcome rather modest. But viewed through a historical scope, the results were transformational. I am not referring to the […]