The Foundation and Composition of Egypt's Role in the Arab World

Abstract

The choice of topic “The Foundation and Composition of Egypt’s Role in the Arab World” is not purely out of interest. It rises out of the abundance of literature and discourse that places Egypt at the centre of the Arab world with very ambiguous reasoning and seemingly haphazard confusion. This thesis thus seeks to do two things. First it aims to show that through the suspension of material capabilities we can instead focus on the norms surrounding regional powers as well as role conception, which can lead to a better understanding of Egypt’s status in the region which is often ascribed as more political, cultural and social rather than based around military and economics. This research uses certain fixed variables to better understand this; Egypt’s self-conception as a leader, its identity and its absorbing nature. Secondly, it aims to map out, historically, how Egypt’s role has taken different forms and manifested itself differently throughout time. This thesis uses the presidencies of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak as three distinct eras that can provide us an insight into three different ways we can observe Egypt occupying a distinct role in the Arab world. In order to understand how role behaviour is not static, it is posited that it is necessary to recall some of the major political events and how they have acted as catalysts, for more general contextual changes. It is noted however that all the variables cannot be taken into account further research is suggested on this topic.