The role and the place of the religious factor in the foreign and internal policy of modern Egypt

Abstract

This article is devoted to the role of the Islamic factor in the foreign policy of the modern Arab Republic of Egypt. The article analyzes how the Islamic factor in Egypt is projected on the political processes in this leading Muslim country. The relevance of the study is that the article analyzes the relatively poorly studied development processes in one of the most stable and leading Muslim countries – the Arab Republic of Egypt in the period after the crisis socio-political events of the so-called «Arab Spring». At the same time the study analyzes what multidimensional and contradictory influence Islam has on the political system and the political course of the country’s leadership, regardless of the historical past. 

In the article, the author, through a systematic and comparative analysis, tries to show how the confrontation between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood influences the country’s foreign policy, including Egypt’s international cooperation with neighboring countries during the terms of various presidents of the country.

The article consists of two parts, the first part covering the period from 1952 until January 2012, i.e. the period before the «Arab Spring», which analyzes the state and problems of Egyptian society, as well as the reasons that had led to the collapse of the reign of Hosni Mubarak. The second part is devoted to the study of the ongoing and current internal socio-political processes and problems, including their reflection on the country’s foreign policy.