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Foreign Policy
Helping Out Is Hard To Do
The United States sponsors efforts to bolster civil society around the world as part of its overall support for democracy. On paper, the idea seems uncontroversial and its pro-democratic rationale clear. Yet the civil society on the ground in many target countries does not always jibe with broader U.S. interests, leading to problems and paradoxes.
In Egypt, a small but growing portion of the more than $2 billion of U.S. aid each year is devoted to democracy promotion. Support for civil society is limited, however, to the narrow band of organizations that qualify as nongovernmental under the Egyptian government’s restrictive NGO law. As a result, U.S. aid excludes many of the groups that constitute the most vibrant elements of Egyptian civil society, particularly professional organizations (such as the Egyptian Bar Association), human-rights groups, and nonextremist Islamist groups. They are left out because the United States fears displeasing a friendly government, one that in recent years has laid siege to many independent groups. Some organizations are also off the U.S. list because they are viewed as unfriendly to U.S. policy on the Arab-Israeli dispute, even though they are genuine civic voices.
In short, U.S. support for civil society in Egypt—a highly worthwhile cause—ends up colored by partisanship, hypocrisy, and self-interest, precisely the opposite values of those that underlie the civil society ideal. Inevitably, U.S. support for civil society appears to many Egyptians as yet another example of political interference masquerading as high principle.
In any event, small doses of training and grants, even if well-conceived and well-executed, are unlikely to have profound effects on a complex, deeply ingrained sociopolitical life with centuries of history behind it. What Egypt’s civic groups need now above all else is to be able to exercise the freedom of expression that the Egyptian government has pledged to respect by ratifying the major United Nations covenants on human rights. By pressing the administration of President Hosni Mubarak to respect established standards of civil and political rights, the United States and other Western powers can help foster conditions conducive to the flourishing of civil society, without threatening their regional security interests or imposing their political preferences.
–Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid
Cairo
University