The so-called “national dialogue” in Egypt had little to do with its glamorous title. It is neither a dialogue nor a national matter. Instead, it is a state-sponsored speaker series with an ever-extending time frame, carefully designed to co-opt weak but vocal opposition to President al-Sisi and to improve Cairo’s tarnished image in the West.
How the Egyptian Navy was transformed from struggling to barely survive on old and rusty equipment and devout, but modestly educated, personnel to an advanced and well-equipped naval force, that is ranked among the top ten worldwide, in a matter of five years?
The Middle East needs to get prepared for dealing with the dire aftermath of US withdrawal from the region. The tragic scenes, at Kabul Airport, of Afghan people clinging to the wheels of the American warplanes to escape Taliban’s hell are nothing compared to the miseries expected to emerge after the US withdrawal from Syria and Iraq, which may happen sooner than we expect. Unfortunately, the future of the Middle East region appears to be dark and messy. Yet, there still a chance for Middle East countries to take a unified action to minimize the scale of unforeseen damages.
It would be a delusion to assume that the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia, over the building and filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), has not, yet, escalated into a state of war. Egypt and Ethiopia have already been engaged in war-level conflicts, since Ethiopia announced its intention to build the dam on the upstream of the Blue Nile, in 2009. Although, it is not a traditional war, in the form of deploying tanks and fighter jets against each other; it may get to the point soon. Should a military conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia erupts, it will not only affect the security of Africa but also the security of the Middle East and the stability of Europe.
Exploring the changing trends of terrorist activities in Sinai and its impact on Egypt’s national security
This paper discusses the potential of the Egyptian economy in light of withdrawing the military institution from market competition and how this is going to impact the democratization process in general.
In January – April 2018, LDI ran a nationwide campaign to monitor the freedom and fairness of presidential elections. LDI produced a detailed report documenting the electoral process and provided a scientific evaluation of the political and legislative context of the elections to measure the progress of democratic transformation in Egypt.
In late 2015, LDI ran a nationwide campaign to monitor the freedom and fairness of parliamentary elections. As a result, LDI produced six assessment reports that provided a scientific evaluation of the electoral process from the first day of calling for candidates till the last day of announcing ballot results.
Between 4-10 November 2016, LDI team conducted an opinion poll on the priorities of Egyptians’ needs following the radical economic reform decisions taken by the Central Bank on the morning of November 3rd, which included currency floating, and lifting partial subsidies on some petroleum products and other energy resources. The survey aims to measure the degree of citizens’ satisfaction with these decisions and their expected impact on their daily lives. The survey also measures the degree of Egyptian citizens’ willingness and readiness to cooperate with the government on facing these challenges.
LDI conducted a nationwide survey, on November 15th to December 16th, 2016, on a random sample of five thousand citizens from all over Egypt, to scientifically measure Egyptians’ stance towards the calls of political reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.