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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A raft for the 21st century
By Dina Ezzat
Facing international and regional uncertainties, Egypt seems to be increasingly confronted with many pressing political and economic decisions. In a lecture delivered on Sunday to Egyptian graduates of American universities, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa argued that these decisions should make Egypt "strong and secure". For Moussa, this means that Egypt has to be healthy economically, influential politically and un-marginalised militarily.
Egypt's top diplomat boasts of the progress that Egypt has made on the economic and political fronts: healthier economic indicators, more balanced relations with the US, a wider circle of solid international ties, greater efforts towards inter-Arab reconciliation and less compromising terms for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
However, Moussa is realistic about the magnitude of the challenges facing Egypt and also their inherent ambiguities. He summed them up in this way:
"There is a clash of civilisations being promoted by certain countries, who insist on having adversaries, if not enemies."
"There is a still uncrystallised new world order... under which there is only one superpower, the role of the United Nations is being reconsidered, and NATO is attempting to impose itself" as an alternative.
"There is a new economic system, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) [at its core], and by means of which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)" could be restructured.
"There is an uncrystallised [and problematic] regional order... under which Israel feels strong enough to impose its hegemony plan on the present and future of the region, leaving the peace process impaired... The status of Iraq [remains to be decided]... and water resources could [at one point] develop into an issue."
There is also what Moussa terms "the unexpected". "For example, the collapse of the Soviet Union; this was not expected to happen the way it did; there were expectations that [the role of the Soviet Union] would be eroded or weakened, but [nearly the entire world] was surprised to see what happened and, therefore, did not know exactly how to deal with it." The future may have in store more of the same, although few events could be as dramatic as the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Obviously, none of these factors serves Egypt's interests. But Moussa argues that Egypt's foreign policy-makers are doing all they can to steer the nation clear from harm's way.
Egypt continues to lobby world opinion to change the concept of the "clash of civilisations" into a "dialogue of civilisations", with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) serving as a good forum for this aim. When NATO decided to expand to the Mediterranean basin, Egypt sought observer status with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Egypt is also showing keen interest in joining several regional groupings to expand its political and economic horizons and gain greater political leverage. Egypt is trying to streamline ties with the United States to secure "continuous and sustained bilateral relations, that are based on mutual respect and interests". And, above all, Egypt is persistent in its pursuit of inter-Arab economic cooperation to achieve a "truly united Arab world, that is bound together by common interests", on the basis that this is the best way to persuade international and regional powers to recognise the rights and demands of the entire Arab world, Egypt included.
Many developments are expected as a result of the changing political and economic parameters that will govern the world of the 21st century, argued Moussa. The objective of Egypt's foreign policy is "to make sure that the repercussions of these developments are not harmful to Egypt".
On a blunt note, Moussa said: "Egypt has to secure its future against the negative impact of the new world order... because if Egypt, with its central role in the region, fails to talk to and deal with rather than confront this [new world] order, then we are bound to lose the 21st century, just as we lost the 20th century."
