NEW YORK: With the issue of succession looming over the Egyptian political landscape and the Obama administration seemingly disengaged, a bipartisan group of American academics and former government officials has been diligently working behind the scenes to focus the attention of decision makers here in the U.S. The Working Group on Egypt was born in February, when Bob Kagan, an historian and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, approached Michele Dunne, a senior associate at Carnegie and editor of its Arab Reform Bulletin. Kagan was concerned about the issues surrounding succession, political freedom and human rights in Egypt. “Nobody in Washington seemed to be paying attention to this,” Dunne told me. Dunne and Kagan put their heads together and generated a list of people who they thought might be interested in working with them. They found plenty of takers. “A lot of us felt that there was something that needed attention here,” Dunne said. The first thing the group did was draft a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to promote democratic reform in Egypt. “We are concerned that—unless the United States takes a serious interest—Egypt will hold parliamentary elections this year and a presidential election in 2011 that will be less free and fair than those held in 2005,” the letter said. “Rather than progressing gradually on a path of desirable reform, Egypt is instead sliding backwards into increased authoritarianism.” Secretary Clinton responded to the letter, saying the administration is “fully committed to advancing political reform in Egypt” and has spoken out about their concerns “as appropriate the occasion.” Dunne described the response as “substantive.” That the administration has, at times, raised issues with the Egyptian regime is not in question. “The question is, does the administration have any kind of strategy behind this, do they care enough about this to think about creating incentives or disincentives,” Dunne said. “Up to now, I don't see it, I don't see that they do.” The Working Group is agitating behind the scenes to change that. Members have been meeting in small groups with administration officials and with congressional officials on Capitol Hill, either formally or informally. “Because we've got people who are from different political perspectives, everyone in our group has their own set of contacts,” Dunne said. “It gives us the ability to reach out to a lot of different people.” Their efforts seem to be paying off, at least in small measure. Dunne said there is now a “good degree of interest on the Hill, particularly the Senate side,” and that individuals in the Obama administration are “now seized with this problem.” Senator Russell Feingold introduced a resolution to “support democracy, human rights and civil liberties in Egypt.” Dunne, who is fluent in Arabic, has spent the past 30 years in and out of Egypt, including a year in Cairo doing PhD research and a two-year stint at the embassy there, so she knows the country as well as any American and is aware that there are those in Egypt who think Americans should mind their own business. And that, she says, is exactly what the Working Group is doing. “Our effort as the Working Group is directed toward our government,” she said. “We feel that it's our proper role as American citizens and as people concerned with the foreign policy of the United States to be advocating certain policies with our own government.” What difference all of this will make in Egypt is still unclear. The Obama administration will have to get much tougher before the Egyptian regime feels any pressure from that quarter, and so far there is little indication that either Obama or Clinton plans on tightening any screws. “The problem with this administration is we started from less than zero,” Dunne said. Obama and his aides were so concerned with not doing anything that George Bush's administration had done, that they gave democracy promotion — a Bush initiative that had disastrous results in the Middle East—a wide berth. Dunne said she's seen some movement since then, but it's slow. “They have started to build the rhetorical edifice of a policy that includes human rights,” she said. It's an improvement, but still very general. Still, the arrival of new members of the administration who want a new policy toward Egypt gives Dunne reason for optimism. But as far out in front of the administration as the working group may be, it is still taking a moderate approach. “We're not saying cut ties, we're not saying cut aid,” Dunne says. “We have merely called for the United States to take a serious interest in Egypt and how we can use whatever influence we have in Egypt to encourage greater political freedom and greater human rights and greater civil rights for the Egyptian people.” The Obama administration is a long way from where it needs to be on the issue of human rights in Egypt; one can hope that efforts such as that of the working group will push it in the right direction. It's worth noting, though, that the members of the Working Group are Americans. There are plenty of Egyptian-American groups here in the United States who have a vested interest in what happens in Egypt. Unfortunately, they have been less than effective lobbyists on the issue. Egyptian-Americans would do well to watch the Working Group and learn a lesson from them. It's not enough to cross one's fingers and hope things move in the right direction. Egyptians in the U.S. should remember that that they, too, have a duty to be involved citizens—both in the U.S. and in Egypt. BM
