Germany is being met with rejection from the governments of Arab states when it calls for human rights to be respected. If those being addressed do not outright refuse to engage in dialogue, they usually rely on four patterns of argumentation to ward off corresponding demands: (1) the human...

Since taking office, President Mohamed Morsi has clearly set himself apart from his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, as reflected in two trends: asserting a regional leadership role for Egypt and opening Cairo's foreign policy to new potential partners. But although Morsi comes from the Islamist...

Germany is being met with rejection from the governments of Arab states when it calls for human rights to be respected. If those being addressed do not outright refuse to engage in dialogue, they usually rely on four patterns of argumentation to ward off corresponding demands: (1) the human...

After the January 2015 attacks in Paris, Muslims from all over the world showed impressive solidarity with the victims. This was the more surprising given that the victims included cartoonists working for the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo", whose caricatures of Mohammed had previously caused...

Since the military coup of July 2013, one of the characteristics of the Egyptian regime has been the lack of clarity on the boundaries of political activism and on what activities it would, or would not, tolerate. Red lines have been shifting frequently, as a plethora of presidential decrees has...

Scholars across the globe are increasingly victims of repression due to their crucial involvement in critical knowledge production. Studies have pointed to the connection between this worrying trend and processes of global authoritarian regression, illustrating how the curtailment of academic...

Scholars across the globe are increasingly victims of repression due to their crucial involvement in critical knowledge production. Studies have pointed to the connection between this worrying trend and processes of global authoritarian regression, illustrating how the curtailment of academic...

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has consolidated his authoritarian regime in recent years. This has been accompanied by a significant increase in Cairo's foreign debt, which more than tripled between June 2013 and March 2022. The country's debt policy was directly linked to the...

Over the past 10 years, the de facto alliance of the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has exercised significant influence over developments in the Middle East. The common goal has been to prevent democratic transformation, stop the rise of political Islam and...

The Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military intervention in the Gaza Strip marks a turning point in relations not only between the two parties to the conflict but also between Egypt and Israel. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, those ties were steadily...