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Loans for the president: external debt and power consolidation in Egypt
Kredite für den Präsidenten: Auslandsverschuldung und Herrschaftssicherung in Ägypten
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik -SWP- Deutsches Institut für Internationale Politik und Sicherheit
Abstract Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has consolidated his authoritarian regime in recent years. This has been accompanied by a significant increase in Cairo's foreign debt, which more than tripled between June 2013 and March 2022. The country's debt policy was directly linked to the presidential c... view more
Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has consolidated his authoritarian regime in recent years. This has been accompanied by a significant increase in Cairo's foreign debt, which more than tripled between June 2013 and March 2022. The country's debt policy was directly linked to the presidential centre of power. The government managed a well-choreographed mix of incentives, threats, and concealment that made it possible to take out more and more new loans. The Egyptian military, on whose support President Sisi is dependent in order to assert his claim to power, is the main beneficiary of the debt policy. External debt helped to protect the revenues and assets of the armed forces, to finance major projects in which they could earn significant money, and to pursue an expansive military build-up. The instrumentalisation of debt policy for power politics increases the risk that Egypt will no longer be able to service its liabilities in the future. Above all, however, the misallocation of scarce financial resources undermines the socio-economic development of the country and promotes police-state repression. The latter, in turn, favours the political instrumentalisation of debt policy for power politics, as it prevents any control of government action. In the future, Germany and its European partners should therefore tie bilateral lending as well as support for Egypt in its negotiations with international financial institutions to two conditions: firstly, the dismantling of military economic activities - whereby the assets of the armed forces must also be disclosed - and secondly, concrete steps towards ending police-state repression. (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
Egypt; national debt; securing of power; authoritarian system; power politics; fiscal policy; socioeconomic development; repression; economic relations; bilateral relations; lending; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Economic Policy
Free Keywords
Externe Verschuldung; Steigerung/Ausbau; Relation; Herrschaftssicherung; Staatsoberhaupt; Sīsī, ʿAbd-al-Fattāḥ as-; Konsolidierung; Implikation; Offizieller internationaler Kredit; Politische Konditionalität; Technokraten; Wirtschaftsreformen; Streitkräfte/militärische Verbände; Wirtschaftlicher Akteur; Militärökonomik; Infrastrukturpolitik; Beschaffung von Rüstungsgütern im Ausland; Internationaler Währungsfonds
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
33 p.
Series
SWP Research Paper, 12/2022
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18449/2022RP12
ISSN
1863-1053
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications