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Middle East Review of International Affairs
Guns and Butter in the Egyptian Army
by Hillel Frisch
*
Editor's Summary
This article analyzes the Egyptian army, its mission, development and modernization during the past several decades, and its relationship to the political and general civilian spheres. The article contends that Egypt's armed forces have elements of both modern and post-modern armies, and answers the riddle of how Egypt's army has neither sacrificed quantity or quality of its weapons systems, nor slashed military salaries severely, despite a seemingly shrinking budget.
The Egyptian army seems to possess the characteristics of a modern army (in the 1950s' sense, when nationalism and patriotism unquestionably prevailed in military establishments) in a post-modern age. While the post-modern army is often seen as being professionally small, the Egyptian army remains rather large. While the post-modern army is typified by increasing civilian-military integration, the Egyptian army has constructed at least 17 military cities to isolate the military from the civilian population.
Full PDF Document, 12 pages, 73kB
Endnotes:
Note *: Hillel Frisch is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Bar-Ilan University and Senior Researcher at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies. He is the author of Countdown to Statehood: Palestinian State-Building in the West Bank and Gaza (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1998) and many articles on Arab and Palestinian politics Back