EXPLORING AND ANALYSING THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THE ARAB SPRING IN EGYPT

A term invented by American news journal Foreign Policy, the ‘Arab Spring' is used to refer to the wave of political uprisings that had started in Tunisia in 2010 and has since swept across the Arab World posing a strong resistance towards the existing authoritarian and kleptocratic regimes. The levels of success of the upheavals differ from place to place. The Egyptian equivalent, also known as the Egyptian Revolution was triggered by the death of Khaled Saeed and further endorsed by social media campaigning led by Wael Ghoneim. As an immediate result of the protests in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak, who was in office since 1981, was deposed in 2011, thereby ending the 31-year-old State of Emergency leading to suspension of the Constitution, parliamentary dissolution and subsequent democratic elections. This paper seeks to explore and analyse the directions taken by Egypt during this so-called post-Arab Spring reconstruction period dotted with perpetual mass insurgency. Contrary to the anticipation of democracy and civil freedoms as a result of Mubarak's resignation, Egypt has been caught up in further economic ebbs and repressive measures. Being the largest Arab state and Israel's neighbour and Camp David partner, Egypt is pivotal for the region's future. The overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the subsequent electoral victory of Abdel Fatah el-Sisi after the constitutional referendum in 2014 proved to be a turning point for the Sinai insurgencies and ultimately in the question of regional stability and liberalization, something largely unheard of since the Suez Crisis. Through analysis of present state of affairs in Egypt, this paper seeks to establish a progress report of the Arab Spring in the region and infer as to what the future looks like for the hundreds and thousands that had valiantly occupied Tahrir Square to voice a collective opinion in favour of democracy.