Blog post on The Boston Review

Jan 13

Last week, The Boston Review published a short post by me on the significance of the Egyptian government’s decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. I was happy to find out that the same piece was picked up The Daily Dish and Informed Comment.

Their January/February forum will be dedicated to the question of Egypt’s failed democratic transition.  They graciously invited me to write the principal essay.   Respondents are Andrew March, Ellis Goldberg, Nathan Brown, Micheline Ishay, Akbar Ganji, and Anne Norton. It is scheduled to appear on the third anniversary of the January 25th Revolution.

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Ian Shapiro and “Power-Based Resourcism”

Dec 01

I just finished reading a recent article of the Yale Political Science Professor, Ian Shapiro, “On Non-Domination,” in which he contrasts his view of “power-based resourcism” and non-domination as the bedrock of justice to egalitarian and libertarian conceptions of justice. 

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Comparing the June 30 Protest Law with the Morsi Government’s Proposed Demonstration Law

Nov 25

Here is a link to a memo providing a detailed, article by article comparison between the law promulgated by the June 30 government and that proposed by the Morsi government.

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Egypt’s New Protest Law

Nov 25

The “revolutionary” government — headed by the interim President, Adly Mansur, previously president of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, otherwise known as a bastion for liberal and democratic values — has passed a new law titled “Organization of the Right to Public Meetings, Marches and Peaceful Demonstrations.” Here is a link to the official version as published in the Egyptian Gazette.

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Documenting the Deaths from the Rab’a Massacre, International Criminal Law, and Egypt’s Future

Oct 19

I came across this 100-page report today documenting the names of many of the dead from the Rab’a Massacre and the circumstances of their death.  I cannot comment on the details, but I think it is crucial that Egyptians face the grim details of what happened on August 14.  By any objective measure, the Egyptian police and military committed “serious violations of common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,” i.e., they committed war crimes

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Egypt and Turkey: the View from the Equity Markets

Oct 18

Some Egyptians seem to think that the Erdogan’s government opposition to the July coup against Morsi is rooted in a fear that the Egpytian anti-MB revolution/coup represented an “existential  threat” to the Turkish government.  This seems far-fetched, at least in light of the substantial achievements of the Erdogan government since it came to power a decade ago.  Moreover, its success is reflected in the equity markets of each nation: Turkey has massively outperformed Egypt as well as a broad index of emerging equity markets (EEM) over the last five years, as this graph shows (TUR is the red line; EGPT is the green line; EEM is the blue line):

 

Screenshot 2013-10-18 14.57.58

 

 

Markets, of course, are not always right, but they represent relatively educated guesses about the future; moreover, to a large extent, they also shape future expectations: a track record of market profits itself produces optimism that increases investments, and in turn, reinforces a cycle of positive growth.  On the other hand, consistent losses discourage future investment, and thus risks producing the very same pessimistic outcome that the market is forecasting.

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