This excerpt is taken from my article originally published here on Al Monitor on Monday, June 18, 2012. I hope you find it interesting and I look forward to reading your comments.  Read more »

The Sandmonkey says Egypt’s revolutionaries suffer from Groupthink.

The BBC offers a Q&A on this week’s ruling by the Egyptian Supreme Court, explaining exactly what it means and what impact it might have going forward. Read more »

This article originally appeared here on ForeignPolicy.com on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. I hope you find it interesting and look forward to reading your comments.  Read more »

Before there was Mohamed Bouazizi there was Khaled Said.

The official “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook page that helped instigate the January 25 uprising in Egypt and brought the issue of police torture to the forefront. Read more »

The verdicts in the trial of the Mubaraks, former Interior Minister Habeeb al Adly, and eleven senior Ministry of Interior officials came in on Saturday morning and like clockwork protesters are out in Tahrir Square again.  It’s no surprise why.  The Ministry of Interior officials were acquitted as were Mubarak’s sons, Gamal and Alaa.  The former president and al Adly were each given life sentences, but I’m told the acquittals of the others lay the legal groundwork for Mubarak and al Adly to be cleared on appeal.  Justice was not served. Read more »

Over the weekend when it became clear that Egypt’s presidential elections would go to a run-off between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi and former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, some observers were quick to claim that the latter’s victory would bring a collective sigh of relief inside the Beltway.  This was obviously pure speculation, which means something on Twitter, but it raises an interesting question: Who is better for the United States, Morsi or Shafiq?  Let me caveat by stipulating that the United States is essentially a sideshow here; the most important issue is who will be better for Egypt.  That is something for Egyptians to decide on June 16^th and 17^th.  Nevertheless, given Washington’s long-term ties to Cairo, American officials and Egypt observers are trying to understand what is in store for U.S.-Egypt relations under either President Morsi or President Shafiq.  Readers of this blog can pretty much guess that I don’t think either candidate is “good” for the United States, which means Washington will have to adjust to new Egyptian realities.  No one is Hosni Mubarak and while the notion that he did everything the United States wanted is not entirely accurate, he did “understand that Egypt’s interests lie with the United States,” according to an official who served in George W. Bush’s administration. Read more »

I blew it.  There is no other way of putting it.  The following two sentences from a CFR “Expert Brief” that I posted on May 21^st are, without a doubt, my Scott Norwood moment:

The declining fortunes of the Brothers’ presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, who is trailing badly in the polls, signals the group is paying the price for the decision to run a candidate despite earlier commitments not to do so. Although Egyptians supported the Brotherhood in parliamentary elections, the Brothers’ about face on the presidential elections clearly evokes the hypocrisy of the Mubarak era. Read more »

Mahmoud Salem, also known as The Sandmonkey, rejects the prevailing narrative about Egypt’s top presidential candidates, days before the results appear. Read more »

Below is my take on Egypt’s presidential elections, scheduled for May 23, originally published here on CFR.org. I hope you find it interesting. 

Over the last sixteen months, Egypt has experienced wrenching economic problems, continuing street protests, spasms of violence, and a noticeable deterioration of state authority. Yet these challenges have not, as some have warned, undermined the promise of Tahrir Square in the eyes of many Egyptians. To be sure, the revolutionary activists have lost their luster, the liberals have proven themselves too fragmented to be an effective political force, and the labor movement–a potentially potent bloc–has yet to make a full impact on the political arena. Read more »

My colleague Laurie Garrett and I wrote this piece on the threat of foot and mouth disease in Egypt, which can be read in full here on The Atlantic. I hope you find it interesting. Read more »