SUMMARY
After a series of revolts against the United Kingdom, the occupant of the area since 1882, the Kingdom of Egypt proclaimed independence in 1922. The monarchy was ousted in 1952, and the military seized power, which led to the establishment of the Republic of Egypt in 1953. The first President of Egypt was Muhammad Naguib, who was succeeded by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Following the short-lived United Arab Republic experiment with Syria, the country officially became the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971. Since the establishment of the republic in 1953, Egypt has been ruled mainly by authoritarian military figures, having a parliament but lacking in free and fair elections and democratic rights. The administrations that have ruled Egypt since its independence have fought to suppress democratic change as well as Islamic extremism and have adopted an ideology of secular Arab nationalism and, from time to time, pan-Arabism. Since 1946, Egypt has experienced interstate, intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
Organized Violence in Egypt
In the domestic sphere, the Government of Egypt has been challenged by Islamist rebel groups, with the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) engaging in an intrastate armed conflict in 1993-1998 and Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) in 2004-2005. Both the Government of Egypt and the Islamist rebel groups have been involved in the use of one-sided violence. In the foreign sphere, Egypt was involved in Kuwait's interstate conflict with Iraq by being a secondary warring party in the international coalition that supported Kuwait in 1991.
Following the turmoil and political upheaval of the Arab Spring, which began in 2011, Egypt has experienced considerable armed violence. In 2013, the government was overthrown in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who then took power in Egypt. A year later, violence escalated in the Sinai Peninsula as the militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis began fighting the government. The group was opposed to the "secular" al-Sisi government (see Egypt: Government).
In November 2014, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), effectively becoming the “Sinai Province” of IS' "Caliphate" (for more on this, see Egypt: Islamic State). The conflict has seen a drastic decrease since 2019 and has not been active since 2022. Throughut the years, the Government of Egypt organized offensives, and meanwhile, (IS) continued to carry out attacks against both military and civilian targets.
Parallel to the Sinai-based IS insurgency, the Government of Egypt has since 2017 been challenged by several other groups as well, such as Harakir Sawa’id Misr and Jama’at Ansar al-Islam (see Egypt: Government). During the same time, Egypt has also seen non state conflıct between groups such as Copts and Muslims, supporters of al-Ahly Football team and supporters of al-Masry football team, Opponents of Morsi and Supporters of Morsi, as well as between Bani Hilal and Nubian Dabudiya. Most of the non-state violence has been concentrated around Cairo and the upper Nile region.
Conflicts pre-1989
Egypt has experienced a number of interstate conflicts since 1946, almost all of which have included its eastern neighbor Israel. In 1948-1949, Egypt joined several other Arab countries in an attack on the newly proclaimed state of Israel in an attempt to hinder its creation. Nevertheless, the interstate armed conflict that followed was won by the Israelis.
In 1951-1952, Egypt fought an interstate conflict with the United Kingdom over the status of the Suez Canal, when Egypt repudiated a 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, which gave the UK the right to keep troops in the canal area. The Suez Canal dispute arose again in 1956 when Egypt fought a short interstate conflict against attacking forces from the UK, France, and Israel as President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Although the conflict was a military success for Israel, the UK, and France, they were soon forced to withdraw from the occupied Suez Canal due to international pressure.
Egypt and Israel fought further interstate conflicts over the Suez -and also the Sinai Peninsula- with armed conflicts breaking out in 1967, 1969-1970, and 1973. In the 1967 conflict, also known as the Six-Day War, Egypt lost control of the Sinai to Israel. The attempt to recapture the territory in 1973 also ended in an Egyptian military defeat. Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s successor, signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, regaining Sinai in a land-for-peace deal.
