Table Of ContentRich and Poor States
in the Middle East
About the Book and Editors
Rich and Poor States in the Middle East:
Egypt and the New Arab Order
edited by Malcolm H. Kerr and El Sayed Yassin
While oil wealth has enriched some Middle East Arab nations, others
that lack oil resources have remained poor and are looking now to their
oil-rich neighbors for development assistance. This collection of studies
on the economic, social, and political relationships between the haves
and the have-nots in the Middle East focuses on Egypt—the largest state
in the region—and on its prospects for change based on financial
assistance from other Arab countries.
The authors have many disagreements about the future of both rich
and poor nations in the Middle East and considerable skepticism about
the possibility of transforming Egypt, but they do agree that the future
must be projected in the framework of a new regional order in which oil
wealth, labor migration, and liberalized national economies are funda
mental realities.
Malcolm H. Kerr is professor of political science, University of
California, Los Angeles, and director of the University of California
Study Center in Cairo. He was visiting professor at the American Univer
sity in Cairo from 1979 to 1981 and director of the Von Grunebaum
Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, 1977-1979. Among his publica
tions are The Arab Cold War (1971) and Islamic Reform (1965). El
Sayed Yassin is director of the Center for Political and Strategic Studies,
A1 Ahram, Cairo.
Rich and Poor States
in the Middle East
Egypt and the New Arab Order
edited by Malcolm H. Kerr
and El Sayed Yassin
__________Westview Press • Boulder, Colorado
The American University in Cairo Press • Egypt
This volume is included in Westview's Special Studies on the Middle East.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any in
formation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright ° 1982 by The Regents of the University of California
Published in 1982 in the United States of America by
Westview Press, Inc.
5500 Central Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80301
Frederick A. Praeger, President and Publisher
Published in 1982 in Egypt by
The American University in Cairo Press
111 Sharia Qasr El Aini, Cairo
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 820126
ISBN: 0-86531-275-3
ISBN: 0-86531-276-1 pbk
Composition for this book was provided by the editors.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Contents
Preface......................................................................................................ix
I. Malcolm H. Kerr
Introduction:
Egypt in the Shadow of the Gulf..................................................1
PART ONE: THE NEW ARAB SOCIAL ORDER
II. Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Oil, Migration and the New Arab Social Order..........................17
III. Georges Sabagh
Migration and Social Mobility in Egypt.....................................71
PART TWO: THE NEW ARAB ECONOMIC ORDER
IV. Essam Montasser
The Arab Economy and Its Developing Strategy:
A New Arab Economic Order....................................................99
V. Jeswald W. Salacuse
Arab Capital and Trilateral Ventures in the
Middle East: Is Three a Crowd?.................................................129
VI. Hazem El-Beblawi
The Predicament of the Arab Gulf Oil States:
Individual Gains and Collective Losses.....................................165
VII. Naiem A. Sherbiny and Ismail Serageldin
Expatriate Labor and Economic Growth: Saudi
Demand for Egyptian Labor....................................................225
VIII. Gouda Abdel-Khalek
The Open Door Economic Policy in Egypt: Its
Contribution to Investment and Its Equity
Implications................................................................................259
vii
viii Contents
IX. Gala! Ahmad Amin
External Factors in the Reorientation of Egypt’s
Economic Policy........................................................................285
PART THREE: THE NEW ARAB POLITICAL ORDER
X. AU E. Hillal Dessouki
The New Arab Political Order:
Implications for the 1980s..........................................................319
XL Nazth N. M. Ayubi
Implementation Capability and Political Feasibility
of the Open Door Policy in Egypt.............................................349
XII. Paul Jabber
Oil, Arms, and Regional Diplomacy: Strategic
Dimensions of the Saudi-Egyptian Relationship....................415
XIII. Malcolm H. Kerr
Egypt and the Arabs in the Future: Some Scenarios..................449
Index......................................................................................................473
The Contributors...................................................................................481
Preface
This book is the fruit of a collaborative enterprise undertaken by the
Gustave E. Von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies of the
University of California, Los Angeles, and the Centre for Political and
Strategic Studies of Al-Ahram Foundation, Cairo, with the generous
financial support of the Ford Foundation. The participants in the project
include three permanent members of the UCLA faculty, four members
of the research staff of the Ahram Centre, and other American and
Egyptian scholars. Five of the Egyptian participants spent periods of six
months or more at UCLA on visiting professorial appointments while
they prepared their chapters for this volume. A workshop was held at
UCLA in July 1980 and was attended by nine of the participants; on this
occasion the first drafts of chapters underwent intensive critical review
by all members of the group.
The following four chapters draw upon work initially undertaken
under other auspices. A previous unpublished Arabic-language draft of
Essam Montasser’s paper, “The Arab Economy and Its Developing
Strategy: A New Arab Economic Order”, was presented at a meeting of
the Association of Arab Economists in Baghdad in 1978. The chapter by
Gouda Abdel-Khalek, “The Open Door Economic Policy in Egypt: Its
Contribution to Investment and Its Equity Implications,” is adapted in
part from his paper, “The Open Door Economic Policy in Egypt: A
Search for Meaning, Interpretation, and Implication,” in Herbert M.
Thompson, editor, Studies in Egyptian Political Economy (Cairo Papers
in Social Science, Vol. 2, Monograph 3, March 1979, American Univer
sity in Cairo). Jeswald Salacuse’s chapter, “Arab Capital and Trilateral
Ventures in the Middle East: Is Three a Crowd?” is derived from a larger
study he prepared with the support of the Ford Foundation on “Arab
Capital in the Development of Egypt and the Sudan”. Other portions of
this study are contained in his article “The Arab Authority for
Agricultural Investment and Development: A New Model for Capital
Transfer in the Middle East”, Journal of World Trade, Vol. XII (1978),
ix
Preface
X
pp. 55-66. The chapter by Naiem Sherbiny and Ismail Serageldin, “Ex
patriate Labor and Economic Growth: Saudi Demand for Egyptian
Labor”, captures highlights of work they have undertaken in the course
of their duties at the World Bank. Several passages from the first and last
chapters of this volume, by Malcolm H. Kerr, appear also in his article
“Rich and Poor in the New Arab Order,” Journal of Arab Affairs
(Fresno, Calif.), vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1981).
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, author of the chapter “Oil, Migration and the
New Arab Social Order”, has also prepared a considerably magnified
version of the material, to be published in book form under the title The
New Arab Social Order.
Most of the planning and editorial work for this volume was done by
Malcolm H. Kerr, with the frequent advice and assistance of El Sayed
Yassin. Our roles will be reversed in the preparation of a revised version
of the text to be published in Arabic by Al-Ahram in Cairo, edited
primarily by El Sayed Yassin.
The contents of all chapters in this volume are the sole responsibility of
their individual authors. No opinions expressed therein should be at
tributed to the editors of the volume or the authors of other chapters, nor
to any institution with which the authors have been affiliated, the Ford
Foundation, the University of California, Al-Ahram Foundation, or the
World Bank.
Finally, we wish to express our warmest thanks to the following per
sons whose efforts and encouragement have been of particular help to us
in preparing this volume: Messrs. Robert Edwards and Guillaume de
Spoelberch and Dr. Ann Lesch of the Ford Foundation; Professor
Speros Vryonis, Director of the Von Grunebaum Center for Near
Eastern Studies at UCLA, Mrs. Teresa Joseph, Editorial Assistant, and
Ms. Nina Bertelsen, Administrative Assistant at the Center; Mrs.
Mervyn Adams Seldon of Westview Press; and Mrs. Lindy Ayubi, who
retyped and copy-edited the entire manuscript and prepared the Index.
Cairo Malcolm H. Kerr
El Sayed Yassin
