The Strategy of the United States vis-à-vis the Developments of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt and Strategic Mistake

Subject Areas :

Bashir Esmaeili ¹ , Behroz Mokhtari ² , Somayeh Malek Jamshidi Khane Zeniani ³

1 - ([e-mail]) 1. عضو هیات علمی گروه روابط بین الملل دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد شهرضا
2 - ([e-mail]) 2. دانشجوی دکتری روابط بین الملل دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران
3 - ([e-mail]) 3. کارشناسی ارشد روابط بین الملل دانشگاه آزد اسلامی واحد شهرضا

Received: 2012-06-18 Accepted : 2012-10-03 Published : 2012-01-01

Keywords: Democracy, the Middle East, the Greater Middle East. Egypt, Political Development,

Abstract :

The unexpected developments in the Middle East which occurred in 2011 have attracted the attention of many experts. The long standing dictatorships of the region were caught in the domino of crisis. Some faced regime change; others faced widespread unrest or civil war. These developments took place at a time that few years ago during George Bush junior presidency in the United States of America, a plan was introduced with the name of “the Greater Middle East” which envisaged mechanism for political changes in the region. On the basis of this plan the inefficient governments of the Middle East which generally have undemocratic political system and are deeply affected by corruption and mismanagement at all levels will eventually create dangerous crises for the region. In fact the chaotic situation of some of the countries of the Middle East region not only lead to widespread migration of people to Western countries but in the long run result into growth and formation extremist anti-West groups. Therefore, it is better that democratic model of government substitute the existing form of government and the Western countries should reconsider their support for the dictators of the region. The present article by a descriptive-analytical method wants to study the United States foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East and North Africa developments particularly Egypt (as an important actor of the region) within the framework of the greater Middle East plan. The underlying hypothesis is that the United States policy in connection with Egypt conforms to broad framework of the Greater Middle East plan, although the Egypt’s later developments after the fall of Mubarak which led to coming to power of Muslim Brotherhood was contrary to the United States’ objectives.