Militarizing the nation : the army, business,and revolution in Egypt / Zeinab Abul-Magd.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Egypt's army portrays itself as a faithful guardian "saving the nation." Yet saving the nation has meant militarizing it. Zeinab Abul-Magd examines both the visible and often invisible efforts by Egypt's semi-autonomous military to hegemonize the country's politics, economy, and society over the past six decades. The Egyptian army has adapted to and benefited from crucial moments of change. It weathered the transition to socialism in the 1960s, market consumerism in the 1980s, and neoliberalism from the 1990s onward, all while enhancing its political supremacy and expanding a mammoth business empire. Most recently, the military has fought back two popular uprisings, retained full power in the wake of the Arab Spring, and increased its wealth.

While adjusting to these shifts, military officers have successfully transformed urban milieus into ever-expanding military camps. These spaces now host a permanent armed presence that exercises continuous surveillance over everyday life. Egypt's military business enterprises have tapped into the consumer habits of the rich and poor alike, reaping unaccountable profits and optimizing social command. Using both a political economy approach and a Foucauldian perspective, Militarizing the Nation traces the genealogy of the Egyptian military for those eager to know how such a controversial power gains and maintains control.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This book provides a wide-ranging survey of Egyptian political history under military domination since the 1952 Revolution. Abul-Magd (Oberlin) presents the political history of military control in Egypt throughout the regimes of the Free Officers and their successors. She traces the military's role in the Egyptian economy from socialist state intervention under Nasser, through neoliberal reform beginning with Sadat, to the contemporary setting of military hegemony over the Egyptian economy. The book is dense with detail and relies on in-depth analysis of each time period under study. Its assessment of the military's role in Egyptian politics is timely and significant. Abul-Magd's argument situates the Sisi regime as the culmination of decades of military, political, and economic policies that underpin authoritarian dominance and the inefficiency of the Egyptian economy. Essential reading for anyone interested in the contemporary Egyptian military state. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Paul Rowe, Trinity Western University