Sisi and the military junta have done what they can to ingratiate
themselves with their international backers. They have invited energy
companies to exploit oil and gas resources. They have signed arms deals
that have turned a small state, in global terms, into the world’s third
largest buyer of weapons. And they have made Egypt a home for
yield-seeking international capital: the state’s expenses are now
increasingly financed by dollar denominated loans sensitive to currency
fluctuation. Egypt’s external debt has more than tripled in the last ten
years.
It’s easy to see why the country’s rulers have trouble pre-empting the
reactions of foreign governments that provide weapons, training and
surveillance equipment to the repressive apparatus and then occasionally
complain about their use. A military state laden with French fighter
jets, Italian frigates, German submarines and British assault rifles
finds itself reprimanded by its providers for arresting principled
troublemakers. In the contorted logic of European governments, this is a
form of influence. To their authoritarian collaborators it looks like
caprice.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/november/egypt-locks-down
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