Steven A. Cook
Steven A. Cook is the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square and Ruling but not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Weekly Standard, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. He writes the blog, “From the Potomac to the Euphrates,” at www.cfr.org.
Losing EgyptWashington’s policy of ‘authoritarian stability’ worked for thirty years in the Middle East. Strategic relations with Hosni Mubarak helped enable the U.S. to become the predominant power in the region. But domestic opposition groups used these ties as a cudgel in their struggle against dictatorship. With the fall of
Mubarak, future U.S. cooperation with Egypt must overcome a legacy of mistrust. Read More
View from WashingtonWhen Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi declared it his “duty” to free Omar Abdel Rahman—the man behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six and injured one thousand—it was not a very auspicious beginning for relations between the United States and the ‘new’ Egypt. The U.S. Congress, particularly the delegation from the New York City area, expressed outrage. Read More