Steven A. Cook:… Egyptians and foreign observers have taken to calling recent events in Egypt a “revolution,” but technically speaking it isn’t — at least not yet. Mubarak is gone, but his military remains in charge of the country, the proposed constitutional changes are limited, and much of the security apparatus and even the once-ruling National Democratic Party remain strong (at least outside of Cairo and Alexandria).
Now, the constitutional committee has sought to go beyond the five constitutional amendments and the deletion of one article to which the military is (and Mubarak was) committed. The committee has now put eight amendments on the table, including an explicit reference to writing a new constitution.
It’s important to remember that transitions to democracy are fraught and that revolutions rarely end the way that the people on the barricades hoped they would.
Read it all.
(Foreign Affairs) Q&A With Steven A. Cook on Egypt's Post-Mubarak Future
Steven A. Cook:… Egyptians and foreign observers have taken to calling recent events in Egypt a “revolution,” but technically speaking it isn’t — at least not yet. Mubarak is gone, but his military remains in charge of the country, the proposed constitutional changes are limited, and much of the security apparatus and even the once-ruling National Democratic Party remain strong (at least outside of Cairo and Alexandria).
Now, the constitutional committee has sought to go beyond the five constitutional amendments and the deletion of one article to which the military is (and Mubarak was) committed. The committee has now put eight amendments on the table, including an explicit reference to writing a new constitution.
It’s important to remember that transitions to democracy are fraught and that revolutions rarely end the way that the people on the barricades hoped they would.
Read it all.