Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų įtaka Egipto demokratizacijai Arabų pavasario kontekste ; Influence of the United States of America on Egypt's democratization in context of Arab spring
Egypt is one of the most important Middle East countries for the USA in a strategic sense. This article deals with the USA-Egypt relations and the USA democracy promotion in Egypt during the Arab Spring (2011) with an emphasis on interaction of pragmatic interests and idealistic aspirations. The aim is to reveal the influence of the USA on ongoing change of Egypt's regime. Revolution in Egypt gives the USA a reason for concern because their interests could be no more guaranteed because of the instability in Egypt, which may be very harmful to bilateral relations of the United States and Egypt. The main interest of the USA is the stability of Egypt. The USA is also interested in the Middle East conflict settlement, cooperation in counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation, projects of infrastructure, secure military and commercial transport transit through the Suez Canal, continuous transit of oil and gas. With reference to the democratic peace theory, establishment of democracy in Egypt can be considered a long-term interest of the United States, but the promotion of democracy has been often overshadowed by short-term and medium-term interests. In the beginning of the Arab Spring in Egypt, the USA relied on the moderate rhetoric rather than concrete actions. The USA still strongly supports the Egyptian army, which should ensure the governance of the state in the period of transition to democratic governance. B. Obama has been highly criticized for cutting funding for. [to full text]