Former acting president speaks on Egypt

Lauren Sutherland Guest Writer

Although politics in modern Egypt have been mired in the military imposition of its reigning political party and its leaders, it seems that the country is finally looking to reclaim its position as a leader in the Middle East. This was evinced by last week’s great push for democratic reform culminating in the re-election of the Egyptian president in the nation’s first competitive election.

Glen Johnson, a Professor of Political Science and International Politics at Vassar for 40 years and the College’s acting president from 1997-98 and 2003-04, spoke about democracy in the Middle East Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Villard Room. Johnson has spent the first of two years in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, and is now Executive Director for the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Cairo.

In 2004, Johnson was invited by the American University in Cairo to develop the first American Studies program in the Middle East, the founding of which signaled the region’s growing sense of the United States’ importance and presence in both international and regional affairs. It was only through this invitation that Johnson became involved in the study of Middle Eastern politics. As a professor at Vassar, he specialized in the study of South Asia. “I don’t consider myself a formal scholar of the Middle East, and I intend to share mainly my personal observations and interactions with the people in Egypt with students and Hudson Valley locals,” explained Johnson.

Johnson’s lecture, entitled “Shaping Democracy in the Middle East: A View From Egypt,” was an assessment of the movement for democracy in Egypt.

“Egypt has received a great deal of pressure from both the United States and its indigenous peoples to depart from the authoritarian regime that has defined its political structure and become a leader of the democratization in the Middle East,” Johnson said. In his lecture, he plans to focus on the Egyptian response to such pressures, a perspective that he feels few Americans tend to consider.

Johnson was invited to speak at the Vassar campus by the World Affairs Council in Hudson Valley, an organization which looks to encourage the people of Hudson Valley to take a greater interest in international events. “By giving this lecture, I really hope to leave both the students and local citizens of Hudson Valley with a sense of how the Arabs, particularly the Egyptians, are reacting to both American and indigenous pressures for a movement toward democracy in the Middle East,” said Johnson. “I would be delighted if I could in some way help students at Vassar understand the world from a perspective that may not have been previously considered.”

As stated in President Bush’s 2005 Inaugural address, creating democracy in the Middle East is a major goal of the Commander in Chief’s second term in office.

“Egypt remains one of America’s most stable allies in the Middle East,” Johnson said. “It has been far more open to change and Western influence than some of its neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, and America sees it as a greater prospect for the cultivation of democracy.”

The democratic pressures placed upon Egypt have culminated in last week’s elections, which were the first competitive elections in the country’s history. The nation’s re-elected president, Hosni Murbarak, has been in office 24 years, and his political party, the National Democratic Party, has been the dominant political force since 1952. Over the last 53 years, the Party has produced Egypt’s last three presidents, most of which served scarcely-challenged terms of comparable length.

Over the last year, Johnson has enjoyed a unique vantage point from which to observe the changing political climate in the Middle East. Egypt is the headquarters of the Arab League, and as such receives much of the press coverage and other political traffic in the area. With the greatest number of universities in the Middle East, it hosts lectures by the region’s intellectual leaders. This intellectual concentration “gives a real sense of interchange with all parts of the Middle Eastern culture,” Johnson said.

Johnson intends only to remain in Cairo for another year to design the American Studies, having already retired in 2002.