Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2014

Egypt's Post-Mubarak Predicament

Ashraf El-Sherif

January 2014

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

Three years after the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak from power, Egypt continues to grapple with an authoritarian state. Throughout the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, authoritarian forces remained the key political players. Democratic alternatives have not capitalized on cracks in the system. Prospects for the Brotherhood’s political reintegration and a democratization of political Islam are bleak. As long as credible alternatives fail to gain traction, the old state will persist and Egypt’s central challenges will remain unresolved.