US Strategy towards Human Rights in the Arab World: Egypt Case Study (2001-2018)

Abstract

This study aims at understanding the mechanisms and strategies of the United States in dealing with human rights issues in the Arab world in general, and Egypt in particular, in order to try to form an Arab awareness of the mechanisms and means used by the US administrations in dealing with human rights issues. The research seeks to address the following main question: Is the US strategy towards human rights issues in the Arab world in general and Egypt in particular stable? Or do these strategies change according to the requirements of the American interest? The study finds that the United States of America has taken advantage of the event of September 11, 2001 to completely change its strategy towards human rights. The Bush administration has adopted a new security approach based on the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The successive administrations of the United States have shown willingness to sacrifice democracy and human rights, if they run counter to American interests both in the short and long terms, and to impose power politics on other economic and political policies. During the successive US administrations after 2001, the human rights record in Egypt and the Arab states was not among the US presidents’ interests, nor was it a decisive factor in steering the US diplomacy. And this record does not change the level of the political, economic, and security deal between the United States government and the absolutist regimes in the world as long as they serve US interests. The US-Egyptian relations are governed by strategic mutual interests that have always set a ceiling and limits to the level of escalation or conflict between them. These include full respect of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the American military traffic in the Suez Canal, and security and intelligence cooperation in the war against terrorism.