Investing in authoritarianism: Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s FDI inflows into Egypt under Sisi

Date

2024-5

Author

Küçük, Ömer Naim

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The study investigates the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in bolstering authoritarian resilience in host countries, focusing on investment inflows of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Egypt from the early 2000s to 2023. Utilizing a mixed-method research design that combines insights from quantitative and qualitative analyses, the research suggests that FDI inflows can reinforce authoritarian regimes by enhancing the financial resources available to authoritarian incumbents and solidifying strategic alliances among political leaders and influential elites. It also identifies the political motivations of investor nations to support host regimes as a critical external factor influencing this dynamic. The findings suggest that during President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's rule, Saudi and Emirati FDI were effective in supporting Egypt's authoritarian regime, potentially due to substantial investment allocations into domestic firms affiliated with the Egyptian government and the politically connected elite. These transactions appear to have played a role in enhancing the financial resources available to the Sisi government and may have contributed to strengthening the allegiance of the political elite to the regime by potentially increasing the perceived cost of political defection. The study concludes that while FDI may serve as a strategic financial instrument for sustaining authoritarian regimes in host nations, the extent of its impact is predicated on the mobilization of political and economic resources by the investor countries.

Subject Keywords

Foreign Direct Investment, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Authoritarian resilience, Egyptian politics

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/109429

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis