Soldiers, spies, and statesmen

the long version

Revolutions are difficult to understand and almost impossible to predict. Egyptʹs 2011 revolt was no exception. The militaryʹs abandonment of Mubarak -- a turning point for the revolt -- confounded many observers, who assumed that the leader and the generals stood or fell together. The officers, it was thought, ruled from behind the scenes and simply swapped the figures in the spotlight to preserve the status quo. In a challenge to this conventional view, Hazem Kandil presents the revolution as the latest episode in an ongoing power struggle between the three components of Egyptʹs authoritarian regime: the military, the security services, and the political apparatus. A detailed study of the interactions within this invidious triangle over six decades of war, conspiracy, and sociopolitical transformation, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen is the first systematic analysis of how Egypt metamorphosed from a military into a police state -- and what that means for the future of its revolution. -- Book jacket.