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Sahar Aziz is an associate professor of law at Texas A&M School of Law, where she teaches national security, civil rights, and Middle East law. Aziz serves on the board of directors of the Egyptian American Rule of Law Association (www.earla.org), which supports rule of law reform in Egypt through analysis, public education, and training. She is also a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Much of the analysis on the causes for the military’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood’s performance, or lack thereof, in domestic affairs. Glaringly absent, however, is an examination of the preeminence of Sinai in the military’s decision to intervene in otherwise civilian political disputes between the burgeoning liberal parties and the veteran Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies.
The United States government announced last week that it would not, after all, make a determination as to whether the ouster of Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi constituted a “coup.”[1] This decision has both important strategic and financial implications for the United States. By not designating Morsi’s expulsion as a military coup, U.S. law allows the United States to continue its $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt.
