AN IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION INTO THE STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF EGYPT’S SECURITY SERVICES IN THEIR WAR ON DISSENT
The agents of coercion in Egypt – its military, police, and intelligence services – have been locked in a perennial struggle for power since their inception. Each institution has vied for dominance, shaping and reshaping the country’s political landscape. Yet, the seismic upheaval of the 2011 revolution forced these factions to put aside their differences and forge an alliance in the face of an existential threat: the revolutionary aspirations of the Egyptian people.
Hossam el-Hamalawy – a journalist and leading activist with personal experience at the sharp end of Egyptian repression – delves deep into the inner workings of the security apparatus. Counterrevolution in Egypt is a rare and comprehensive examination of the structures, hierarchies, and methods of the military, police, and intelligence agencies. Drawing on meticulous research, it reveals the strategies deployed to suppress the revolutionary wave, from propaganda and surveillance to mass arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings. El-Hamalawy traces the power dynamics within these institutions to show how their uneasy unity was both a response to the revolution and a determinant of its eventual fate.
What People Are Saying
"Anyone wanting to understand the despiriting end of the Arab uprising in Egypt can do no better than this magisterial, harrowing, richly researched book. Drawing on mountains of Arabic language sources, a sophisticated understanding of Arab revolutionary politics, and his own experience as an activist and dissident in Egypt, Hamalawy has produced an instant classic." Laleh Khalili, author of Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies
"Hossam el-Hamalawy has drawn on his dramatic personal experiences and a vast array of other information to excavate Egypt’s deep state centered on the military and security services. Hidden under but dominating the First Republic’s nominal civil state from its founding in 1952, in Sisi’s Second Republic this deep state has risen above and largely displaced the residual civil state it inherited. Chronicling in remarkable detail this fundamental reconfiguration of the Egyptian political economy, el-Hamalawy’s book is a pioneering, invaluable guide to authoritarian upgrading in Egypt and suggestive of how that process is occurring elsewhere. If there were but one book Western decision makers responsible for policies toward Egypt should read, this is the one, because it lays bare the awful consequences for Egyptians of external support for Sisi’s self-proclaimed but profoundly misnamed Second “Republic”." Robert Springborg, Research Fellow of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University