Introduction
Issue No.10 of the Egypt Institute Journal, published in July 2016, included a number of political, strategic, economic, intellectual and legal articles, as follows:
1- Islamic Political Thought: Pillars, Approaches and Issues, Dr. Seif El-Din Abdel-Fattah (Egypt)
Political thought is the product of the work of thinkers, a translation of their cognitive systems (their perceptions of existence and life) and their systematic perspectives. Hence, Islamic political thought is the sum of ideas and methods of thinking related to the political phenomenon presented by scholars and thinkers throughout the ages of Islam. This thought was built through the interaction of the Muslim mind with three aspects: with the reference origins (from the Qur’an and Sunnah), and with the systematic structures produced by basic Islamic knowledge, in addition to interaction with the civilized and realistic environment in which these philosophers, jurists, and thinkers lived.
The study attempts to present a brief vision of the most important foundations of Islamic political thought within the system of the principles of civilized jurisprudence, including a review of the most important pillars of Islamic political vision, a map of the introductions to Islamic political thought, and its system of issues (the case of the Caliphate).
2- ‘Public Policy Making in Egypt after 2011: Determinants and Actors’, Ahmed Mohsen (Egypt)
The phenomenon of the stability of Egyptian public policies after the revolution can be addressed through more than one approach, such as the political approach, the economic / financial approach, or the institutional approach. This paper addresses it through the public policy approach, because it is the closest to understanding this phenomenon, especially at the executive level. Given that politics greatly affects public policy, this paper assumes that the policy environment in which public policies operate is the most important factor that influences the policy-making process, especially after popular uprisings and during the stages of political transformation, being characterized by instability and ambiguity to a large extent.
The study analyzes how the role of individuals who assumed key executive positions in Egypt from 2011 to the end of 2017 affected the policy-making process, and to what extent those individuals contributed to not making major changes in public policies in Egypt after the revolution.
3- ‘The Islamic Group in Egypt: Conflicting Strategies’, by Ahmed Mawlana (Egypt)
Given that the Egyptian Islamic Group represented the second tributary of the Egyptian jihadist movement during the reigns of Sadat and Mubarak, this study addresses the group’s experience by tracing its roots as a student movement in the early seventies that was politicized over time and turned into a movement having an intellectual and methodological framework opposing the ruling regime. The study also addresses the group’s Sharia and intellectual views, as well as its views on other Islamic groups; the components of its organizational structure, the security repression it was exposed to and prompted it to enter into an armed clash with the regime, the axes of the group’s military wing and its most prominent operations, the security strategy followed by the Mubarak regime in the face of the group, up to the initiative to stop violence and its results, and finally a brief evaluation of the group’s experience.
4- ‘Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: Structure and Strategy’, by Abdelghani Mezuz (Morocco)
The study monitors the track of al-Qaeda in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and addresses the features of its Sharia discourse, fighting ideology; characteristics of its experience and performance; its role in the general strategy of al-Qaeda; and provides an outlook for its future, in light of the organization’s media and intellectual literature.
5- ‘Egypt in International Indicators 2017: An Evaluation Reading’, by Khaled Ashour (Egypt)
The significance of the report lies in the fact that it presents information on Egypt’s position on the most important international indices, and helps to understand the Egyptian reality and draw conclusions summarizing necessary reform actions to help researchers and decision makers in this regard. This report addresses the situation after the coup d’etat of 2013 in Egypt through its position on various international indices in 2017:
1- Global Competitiveness Index
2- Corruption Perception Index
3- Global Misery Index
4- Global Risk Index
5- Rule of Law Index
6- Human Rights Index
7- Freedom of Press Index
8- Transparency International Report on Defense and Security
9- Human Development Index
The first four reports are directly related to economic affairs, while the remaining reports are distributed to other areas, constituting an overall picture of the Egyptian state under the military rule. These reports reflect the decline in Egypt’s position in various areas and presents the reform measures required in these areas. The report presents each “indicator” by defining the indicator and the institution issuing it, then the methodology of the indicator’s work, the way it collects and compiles information, its criteria and questions that it measures. We have been keen to set these standards to be an input to understand the index and the basis for its evaluation, then a summary of general results and observations of the indicator globally and regionally, and the location of Egypt according to the indicators covered in each report.
Egypt Institute Journal (Vol. 3 – Issue 10) link
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