Changing foreign policy: the Obama Administration’s decision to oust Mubarak

• Main Author: Maria do Céu Pinto Arena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais 2017-11-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional
• Subjects: Foreign policy analysis; Foreign policy change; Barack Obama administration´s foreign policy; Hosni Mubarak; Arab spring
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-73292017000100220&lng=en&tlng=en

Abstract This paper analyses the decision of the Obama administration to redirect its foreign policy towards Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring. It attempts to highlight the issue of how governments deal with decision-making at times of crisis, and under which circumstances they take critical decisions that lead to major shifts in their foreign policy track record. It focuses on the process that led to a reassessment of US (United States) foreign policy, shifting from decades of support to the autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, towards backing his ouster. Specifically, the paper attempts to assess to what extent the decision to withdraw US support from a longstanding state-leader and ally in the Middle East can be seen as a foreign policy change (FPC). A relevant research question this paper pursues is: how can the withdrawal of US support to a regime considered as an ally be considered, in itself, as a radical FPC?