Strategic Assessment

This article analyzes the sources of the Egyptian regime’s legitimacy, two years after the Muslim Brotherhood regime was overthrown and one year after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi became president, and assesses the implications of these sources of legitimacy for the processes of democracy in Egypt and peaceful relations with Israel. While the promise of freedom and democracy is ostensibly still at the center of Egyptian establishment rhetoric, during its first year the el-Sisi regime framed security stability and economic welfare as the two main criteria by which it will be judged. This security-economic agenda strengthens the status of peace with Israel as a strategic asset for Egypt, and creates a window of opportunity for closer cooperation and expanded normalization between the two countries.