Sad turn of events in Egypt, a situation in which the U.S. is inextricably implicated. Not sure if there was a policy course we should have followed that would have been different. I understand the defenders of the democratic process who would have wanted Morsi to leave via the ballot box. I also am sympathetic to the claims that the Muslim Brotherhood was running the country in to a ditch. Unfortunately, the military response seems to have made things much worse. All of this suggests that democratic transitions can be bloody and unstable moments in a country’s history.
Here are some links on the coverage. I’ve also got some links to interesting health and environment stories below so read on…
Egypt coverage
- New York Times coverage
- NPR harrowing audio coverage from yesterday
- Steven Cook tries to makes sense of the turn of events (on NPR today, Cook suggested that MB did not want to re-engage political process which helped hardened military line)
- Egypt’s Ambassador to the United States in a chilling interview “It became necessary to finish this thing today”
- Marc Lynch suggests cutting Egypt loose, suspending aid and relations until …
Environment coverage
- New estimates that action on short-lived gases won’t deliver as many near-term climate benefits as previously thought
- Air pollution hits China’s tourism
- Obama bolder on environment in his second term?
Health coverage
- Michael Gerson on a promising malaria vaccine
- Meningitis outbreak among gay men in U.S. contained with vaccination drive
- Doctors Without Borders pulling out of Somalia
- A not too flattering profile of the Clinton Foundation as Hillary prepares a presidential run
Joshua Busby is a Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. From 2021-2023, he served as a Senior Advisor for Climate at the U.S. Department of Defense. His most recent book is States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security (Cambridge, 2023). He is also the author of Moral Movements and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2010) and the co-author, with Ethan Kapstein, of AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations (Cambridge, 2013). His main research interests include transnational advocacy and social movements, international security and climate change, global public health and HIV/ AIDS, energy and environmental policy, and U.S. foreign policy.
Marc Lynch is right about Egypt. With the combination of appointing new governors–almost all army or police generals–and the massacres, it’s clear that Sisi is trying to settle in for an enduring and brutal rule. We should make the delayed assessment that this was a coup, cut aid and ties, and call for new elections as as the sine qua non of renewed relations.