CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 95

GOR GEVORGYAN
Egyptian concept for the development of the Arab World as
an alternative to the American one
Since the 90s of the 20 th century, in the context of globalization process-
es, certain steps were initiated by several Arab states to modernize political
and economic system, more specifi cally, human rights protection commit-
tees, working groups, and even ministries were being created, which, how-
ever, were merely of formal nature serving as a backstage for international
community. Such steps taken periodically by the Arab states were intended
to maintain high their own authority and political reputation.
A number of Arab countries, Egypt in particular, represented by Presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak, described the US concept of “Modernization of the
Middle East” as an attempt to intervene in the domestic political develop-
ments in the region and rejected it. 18
Offi cial Cairo expressed conviction that “modernization and demo-
cratic reforms” should be the result of the historical development of the
Arab community and not dictated from the outside. 19
President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, expressing his position on the
American concept, noted that the Arabs were not sure in the document
because it was impossible to speak of any reform in the realities of war
and confl ict (Assad meant collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime which
resulted in the crisis in Iraq). 20
Speaking about the concept of “Middle East Modernization”, Mua-
mmar Gaddafi , President of the Libyan Jamahiriya, too stated that “the
Maghreb countries have nothing to do with the developments underway
in Mashriq and therefore, the American concept is absurd if it includes
also Maghreb”. 21
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh al-Sabah announced that it was infea-
sible to accept the US concept of «reconstruction Greater Middle East» as
it was threatening to shatter the security system of the region. 22
Thus, by rejecting the American concept of “The Great Middle East or
the Middle East Reconstruction”, several Arab countries such as Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and Syria, as an alternative introduced the so-called Arab
conceptual democratization vision for the Arab world. 23 It should be not-
18
19
20
21
22
23
V. Evseev, The concept “Middle East.”
Cofman Wittes, “The New U.S. Proposal for a Greater Middle East Initiative.”
A. Volovich, “O planakh demokratizacii Blijnego Vostoka,” (in Russian), [“On the plans
for the democratization of the Middle East”], August 19, 2004, Institute of the Middle East,
http://www.iimes.ru/rus/stat/2004/19-08-04.htm (accessed September 20, 2004).
Ibid.
Íbid.
Sergey Kurginyan, “Politicheskoe tsunami: Reformirovaniye arabskogo mira,” (in Russian),
[“Political Tsunami: Reforming the Arab World”], http://www.danilidi.ru/3-war/06_Kurgin-
ian-political-tsunami-arab-reform.html, (accessed September 8, 2018).
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