MESA Banner
In the Words of Foreign Policy: Staging an Egyptian National Identity
Abstract
This paper examines how the Egyptian regime stages itself in the words and image projections that are expressed through foreign policy. If we assume that foreign policy is a particular public policy, insofar that the authority that implements it has limited control over its outcome since it depends on variables beyond its sovereignty (Morin 2013), then the formulation of this policy is crucial. One crucial thing that gets formulated is the link between national identity and the expression of this identity to the outside. The images conveyed in Egyptian foreign policy discourses establish a continuity between a glorified past from the Pharaonic era to the Nasserite era, when the country had a recognized place as a regional leader, and as a country that mattered internationally. Today, this continuity is expressed in particular through the dynamics of mega projects, and the continuous use of superlatives to designate construction projects: "the largest mosque in Africa", "the largest desalination plant on the continent" etc. The very existence of these projects is enough to show the capacities and ambitions of the regime and serves to legitimize the regional action of the country and the need for external support. It is a question of the government affirming a certain idea of the Egyptian national identity, both towards the outside world, towards its partners, but also towards its own population. This research will be interested in the performativity of such discourses and such imaginaries. How do they “stage” a particular version of Egypt and how does it participate in the theater of governance? This paper will base my analysis on discourse and lexical fields around the notions of "pan-Arabism" and "nationalism" to try to understand what are the imaginaries mobilized. What image of Egypt is conveyed by this vocabulary? It will also rely on observations made during the organization by Egypt of the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November 2022. An event of international scope, bringing together more than a hundred foreign leaders, the COP was an opportunity for the Egyptian regime to present itself on a stage where the names of pharaohs and pharaonic figures were intertwined with the more modern issues of climate change. This presentation focuses on the way Egyptian political authorities play on and forge imaginaries in foreign policy both to provide legitimacy towards the outside and to establish an identity internally.
Discipline
International Relations/Affairs
Political Science
Sociology
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
None