This paper expands this panel’s sociological approaches into investigating how military regimes impact the urban structures of the societies they rule. When military regimes took form in many Arab countries between the 1950s and 80s, army officers altered the urban spaces of cities such as Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Tripoli, and San’a. Adopted “Arab socialism” during these decades brought about ambitious infrastructure, social housing, and public service projects that made these Arab capitals share similarities with others in the USSR bloc. In Egypt, Nasser’s socialism made Cairo and other cities and small towns across the country spaces for the lower- and middle-classes to enjoy the benefits of the welfare state, yet under close security surveillance. Under a new military regime in Egypt today, Egypt’s ruling officers have advanced their new notions about the country’s economy and urban development that are presumably based on neo-liberal ideas under the close guidance of the IMF. However, this paper argues that in reality the officers' economic and urban perceptions are inspired by the oil-producing Gulf’s model that heavily focuses on real estate investments and mega construction projects as the main drivers for the national economy. As a result, military contractors and bureaucrats have targeted certain areas in Cairo for gentrification and construction investments that aim at serving the city’s elite and cater for regional capital. This paper is based on conducting field research in Cairo’s old slums, ‘ashwa’iyyat, which have been recently evacuated, demolished, and replaced by luxury developments. Most of these vacated ‘ashwa’iyyat are located in either historic Cairo, Islamic areas with potential for touristic investments, or are close to the Nile, where luxury apartment and office buildings could be erected. Through donations from Gulf states, particularly UAE, military contractors have constructed thousands of apartment buildings in desert areas in the outskirts of Cairo, and military bureaucrats hastily moved the inhabitants of the ‘ashwa’iyyat into them. Interestingly, Emirati real estate developers have taken control of many of the evacuated lands. As for the displaced inhabitants of the slums, they are confined in ghetto-like communities that suffer from heavy securitization and lack of jobs and basic services. In addition, military contractors are building numerous bridges and toll highways across the congested city in order to connect up-scale newly developed areas to each other and facilitate the mobility of neo-liberal consumerism. Evidently, the military ruling elite is gentrifying Cairo towards turning it into another Dubai.