The implications of the Arab uprisings on U.S foreign policy, the case of the government of Egypt -

Abstract

The core objective of this thesis is to study the effect of the Egyptian uprising on the American foreign policy in the country to assess whether there was an increase in foreign assistance provided to the government of Egypt as well as a change in the United States’ broad foreign policy goals post the uprising. The assessment is done through an analysis of the foreign aid to Egypt since the year 1946 and through a content analysis of official announcements, declarations, speeches and U.S positions pre and post Egypt’s uprising. For a more organized analysis, the time interval is divided into three periods that are cautiously selected according to key events which took place in both the U.S and Egypt such as the United States’ September 11 attacks in 2001 and the downfall of Mubarak, the Egyptian president, in February 2011. The first spans the period of time starting on the events of 9-11 and ending on the downfall of President Mubarak. The second starts from Mubarak’s resignation and Morsi's election until Morsi's stepping out of office. The third covers the post Sisi's election period. The thesis contends that there was a policy shift in the broad American foreign policy objectives toward Egypt such as maintaining the Egypt-Israel Treaty, having priority access to the Suez Canal and others driven by the effects of the Arab uprising in general, and the Egyptian uprising in particular as well as an increase in foreign assistance as an outcome of the uprising.. The analysis undertaken is based on the realist approach that is the most applied by International Relations scholars in foreign policy analysis. The study uses Kegley and Wittkopf’s theoretical framework to test for the existence of a policy shift through selecting two of the five sources adopted by the framework; the first source is the role of the president and key high-ranking officials within the American administration who have contributed in the formulation of foreign policy toward Egypt. The other source is the ext