More on Egypt’s economy: despite the massive aid package given by the axis of autocracy in support of the coup, there is still an extreme shortage of dollars, and the economy is no where close to stabilizing, much less achieving sustainable growth or a resumption of meaningful investment. The black market in hard currency, despite the best efforts of the Central Bank, appears to have entrenched itself for the near future as a fixture in the Egyptian economy, with all that implies for the fiscal health — or more accurately — the fiscal distress of the national economy.  

At my presentation yesterday at a conference hosted by Georgetown University, I was asked to speak on international law and the coup.  I spoke about the Statute of Rome, its definition of “crimes against humanity,” the standards for individual culpability, the risks that senior Egyptian officials could be indicted for their actions in the wake of the coup, and what that means for the possibility of democratization in the near or medium term in Egypt.  Here are my slides for that presentation.

This month’s issue of the Boston Review’s Forum was dedicated the question of what went wrong in the Egyptian transition.  I had  the honor of writing the principal piece, which elicited thoughtful responses from my colleagues, Ellis Goldberg, Andrew March, Nathan Brown, Akbar Ganji, Anne Norton and Micheline Ishay. Space restraints, of course, did not allow them a full response, nor me a response to their limited responses, but nevertheless, I thought the editors of the Boston Review did an excellent job putting this forum together. I would like to thank them for inviting me to write the piece, inviting these distinguished scholars to respond, and producing an excellent final version for the public. Finally, I’d like to thank Nader Hashimi and Danny Postel for inviting me to the University of Denver to lecture on Egypt’s transition. That lecture ultimately give birth to this forum.

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.

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. 

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.