Forum #8: The Global Security Structure

Read: Balaam, Chapter 9 The Arab Spring of 2010-11 led to the popular ouster of repressive dictators across the Arab world: Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Egypt. While supporters of democracy initially cheered the development, all of the countries that experienced regime change (with the exception of Tunisia) ended up where they began: with another dictatorship, usually worse then what they had before. Egypt posed a particular problem for both the classical realists and the idealists. The idealists were heartened by the removal of the dictator Hosni Mubarak and the subsequent holding of the first democratic presidential election in Egypts history (yep, going back to the pyramids, people). However, following the election the party that came into power was the Muslim Brotherhood, who some believe is a terrorist organization. The U.S. angered the classical realists and traditional Gulf allies (the unelected, repressive monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.) for betraying a friend and failing to come to the aid of the ousted Mubarak. Furthermore, the U.S., while always supporting the growth of democracy, was challenged by the fact that Egypts little experiment with democracy replaced Mubarak, who was friendly to the U.S., with the Brotherhood, who are deeply hostile to the U.S. The Muslim Brotherhood, it turns out, could not govern. They were in turn ousted by popular revolt, their president imprisoned. Now Egypt has a new dictator, President Sisi, who by most estimates is worse than Mubarak.

Choose one of the following arguments. (1) Make classical realist arguments for why the U.S. should support friends like Mubarak, even if they dont share your values and ideologies; or (2) stand for idealism, the rule of law and democracy. Make arguments for why the U.S. was right, at least in the long term, to support the development of democratic institutions in Egypt.