Historical background of US-Egyptian relations

Résumé du document

"Since 1952 and Egypt's modern history as a fully-independent republic free of British occupation, the country has had a fluctuating relationship with the United States.
One of the first major encounter might be the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, when Israeli troops invaded the Sinai Peninsula and were backed by Britain and France. It should be reminded that the Suez Canal has been of high strategic relevance since its inception in the nineteenth century, as a shortcut between Europe and all the Eastern hemisphere, both in military and commercial terms, as well as a corridor for the flow of crude oil. "

Extraits

[...] But since Russia has intervened in the fight, the issue has gone global, and even China might retaliate against the US should it act beyond standards. As a result, the US will have to be more careful than with the Cold War strategy of containment, when it turned a blind eye on the regimes it supported, not to mention that it turned coats many a time, as it did with Iraq in 1991. They will also have to be more lenient when it comes to domestic democratization. [...]

[...] investments and aids to Egypt have surged, for the latter received some 78 billion dollars in the span of thirty years, including military assistance. With the end of the major local threat on Israel, the United States, which lost its long-time Iranian ally a year earlier, could count on a reliable geo-strategic partner and its diplomatic policy. Not only does Egypt stand as a geographic lock at the crossroads of Africa, Europe (formerly including the USSR, in spite of Turkey already controlling its own straits) and Western Asia, it is also a stable country strongly controlled by the military, from which its presidents came for sixty years. [...]

[...] Yet the war on Sinai was not over, continuing for another seventeen years, from the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition (1967-70) to Operation Badr and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, with Israel eventually being the victor. Such setbacks led to some form of irredentism within the Egyptian population, which was fostered by the army. The military branch, which plays an important role in the economy, as it is directly involved in the agro-food sector and the manufacturing of low-cost consumer goods, also served as a catalyst of national pride and unity. [...]

[...] The answer is not Obama's lukewarm equilibrium to balance Bush's holy crusades, but simply setting a hierarchy of priorities, with the defense of Israel and the deterrence of WMDs on top and then soothing international tensions through cooperation, as could be the case with Iran. Militarization must be avoided and give way to intensifying relations. [...]

[...] Even though the relationship deteriorated after Nasser's death, it has improved again, as proves Russia's massive loan for the building of a nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, the situation entirely shifted in 1979 thanks to the Camp David Accords. From this moment on, the relationship with Israel thawed and became similar to the French-British Entente Cordiale. Since then, both countries cooperated, especially with regard to the fight on terrorism and the management of their common border and of the Gaza Strip. While Israel retroceded the Sinai Peninsula, U.S. [...]