Friday, June 8, 2018 5:30 PM EDT
Merten Hall, 1203
From a political economy approach, this talk follows how Egypt’s military institution has been visibly, or often invisibly, controlling the economy and state in the past three decades. Uniquely in its regional context, the Egyptian army has survived and adapted to crucial moments of change and revolutionary shifts. After decades of espousing socialism, it weathered a period of fundamental transition into the market economy in the 1990s-2000s. Taking advantage of an open market, a new class of “neo-liberal officers” expanded a mammoth business empire and took charge of key bureaucratic positions in control of the government’s economic liberalization schemes. Recently, the Egyptian military has survived two popular uprisings, retained full power, and massively increased its wealth. In today’s Egypt, military business taps into the consumerist realms of rich and poor citizens alike, for both unaccountable profit and optimized social command. In the meantime, military bureaucrats securitize local urban spaces to watch over docile or discontented masses during times of rebellious turmoil. Despite brutal measures against labor strikes and public protests, resistance against the military’s economic and political supremacy continues.