Egypt and American Foreign Assistance 1952-1956 - by J Alterman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Alterman compellingly shows how the interests of the U.S. and Egypt diverged to undermine this early American attempt at economic assistance for Egyptian development.

Book Synopsis

From the ground up the story of missed opportunities, mixed messages, and mutual frustrations in American relations with Egypt at a seminal time. Unprecedented in its drawing on Egyptian official sources, Hopes Dashed sheds new light on the difficulties and challenges of a nascent relationship characterized by missed opportunities, mixed messages, and mutual frustrations. However beneficial the intentions of those on the ground, their desire for Egyptian economic development was stymied by bureaucratic obstacles both in Egypt and the United States. And as Egypt became embroiled in the Cold War, policy decisions increasingly were made at higher levels by officials more concerned with geopolitical and Arab-Israeli issues and less how U.S. assistance could help the domestic political economy of Egypt. Alterman compellingly shows how the interests of both countries diverged to eventually undermine an early American attempt at economic assistance.

Review Quotes

"Alterman provides a valuable framework for improved understanding of the tradeoffs affecting American economic relations with the Third World..." - Bill S. Mikhail, kiplinger.com

"...a laudable attempt to describe Nasser's early relations with the United States from the bottom up..." - Tore Tingvold Peterson, International History Review

"The book is a significant contribution to the literature of American foreign relations and the flawed U.S.-Egyptian relationship." - Terri A. Thomas, H-Levant, H-Net Book Review

"...studies that treat the role of economic aid as an instrument of American foreign policy toward Egypt." - L. Carl Brown, Foreign Affairs, 3-4/01/03

This is an important book on a timely subject: missed messages and missed opportunities between the United States and the Arab world. Michael Doran, Princeton University

About the Author

JON B. ALTERMAN is a program officer in the Research and Studies Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. As an International Affairs Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, he served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. From 1993-97 he taught at Harvard University, from which he received a Ph.D. in history. His opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Asharq al-Awsat, and other major publications. Alterman is the author of New Media, New Politics? From satellite television to the Internet in the Arab world, editor of Sadat and His Legacy