{"id":6660,"date":"2013-07-04T07:47:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T07:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6660"},"modified":"2013-07-04T07:47:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T07:47:53","slug":"when-a-coup-is-not-a-coup-and-democracy-not-about-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6660","title":{"rendered":"When a coup is not a coup, and democracy not about elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EgyptObama\"<\/a>The Egyptian military’s overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi left United States President Barack Obama grappling with a difficult question of diplomacy and language in dealing with the Arab world’s most populous nation: was it a coup?<\/p>\n

At stake as Obama and his aides wrestle with that question in the coming days is the $1.5-billion in aid the US sends to Cairo each year – almost all of it for the military – as well as the president’s views on how best to promote Arab democracy.<\/p>\n

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If the United States formally declares Morsi’s ousting a coup, US law mandates that most aid for its longtime ally must stop. And that could weaken the Egyptian military, one of the country’s most stable institutions with long-standing ties to US authorities.<\/p>\n

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Further complicating Obama’s calculus is the fact that millions of Egyptians rallied in favour of Morsi’s departure, and that the military announced a road map for return to civilian rule that was blessed by Egypt’s Muslim and Christian religious leaders.<\/p>\n

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But Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood retain backing from a broad swath of Egyptian society, even as he alienated many of his countrymen.<\/p>\n

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Obama, after meeting top advisors at the White House, said in a statement that he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the army’s actions and had directed the relevant US agencies to review the implications for US assistance to Egypt.<\/p>\n

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But he did not use the word \u201ccoup\u201d and stopped well short of advocating for Morsi’s reinstatement, suggesting Washington might be willing to accept the military’s move as a way to end a political crisis in a nation of 83 million people struggling with severe economic difficulties.<\/p>\n

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Recent history suggests Obama might take his time on deciding the future of US aid to Egypt, and by extension, Washington’s relations with the country.<\/p>\n

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US law bars \u201cany assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’etat or decree\u201d.<\/p>\n

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When Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in June 2009, Washington temporarily suspended aid, but did not cut about $30-million in assistance until more than two months later.<\/p>\n

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Even then, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not determine as a matter of law that a coup had taken place.<\/p>\n

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Eric Trager, an expert on Egyptian politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Obama should not label Morsi’s ouster a coup, nor cut off US aid.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Obama administration should recognise that as undemocratic as a coup is, it was the result of the basic fact that President Morsi had completely lost control of the Egyptian state,\u201d Trager said by telephone from Egypt.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDemocracy was not the primary thing at stake in Egypt these last few months,\u201d but rather Morsi’s mismanagement and fears of collapse of the Egyptian state, he said.<\/p>\n

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In announcing Morsi had been deposed and the Egyptian constitution suspended, Egypt’s army commander promised a quick political transition. The military laid out plans for elections and a constitutional review.<\/p>\n

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The US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Martin Dempsey, warned Egyptian military leaders of consequences if Morsi’s overthrow were viewed as a coup.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the end of the day it’s their country and they will find their way, but there will be consequences if it is badly handled,\u201d Dempsey told CNN.<\/p>\n

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Obama also warned against further violence, indicating that Washington’s ultimate decision on aid to Egypt will depend on how Egypt’s armed forces handle the transition in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

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Morsi, in power for a year, was widely blamed for presiding over a steady decline in Egypt’s economy and for failing to form a broad-based government that included other groups that had joined in the 2011 revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n

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US lawmakers also welcomed Morsi’s departure but called for a quick transition back to democratic rule – with a close look at the aid budget.<\/p>\n

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Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who heads the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, on Wednesday promised a review of the $1.3-billion in military aid and $250-million in economic aid sent to Cairo each year.<\/p>\n

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Washington has cut off aid following military coups several times before. In April 2012, the United States suspended at least $13-million of its $140-million in annual aid to Mali following a coup in the West African nation.<\/p>\n

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Programmes that did not go directly through government ministries were not affected.<\/p>\n

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Any Obama support for Egypt’s new government is unlikely to face opposition from Republicans in Congress, who had been sceptical of Morsi’s Islamist government.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMorsi was an obstacle to the constitutional democracy most Egyptians wanted,\u201d said Republican Representative Ed Royce, the chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

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Republicans also voiced strong support for Egypt’s military, whose close ties to Washington stretch back to the 1979 Israeli-Egypt peace accords.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Egyptian military has long been a key partner of the United States and a stabilising force in the region, and is perhaps the only trusted national institution in Egypt today,\u201d said US Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDemocracy is about more than elections,\u201d he said. – Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Egyptian military’s overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi left United States President Barack Obama grappling with a difficult question of diplomacy and language in dealing with the Arab world’s most populous nation: was it a coup? At stake as Obama and his aides wrestle with that question in the coming days is the $1.5-billion … Continue reading “When a coup is not a coup, and democracy not about elections”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,123],"tags":[3699,930,190,1018],"class_list":["post-6660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","category-world","tag-coup","tag-democracy","tag-egypt","tag-elections"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/EgyptObama.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6663,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6660\/revisions\/6663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}