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Robert Springborg

Robert Springborg

Springborg

Robert Springborg is a Research Fellow of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University. Formerly he was Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and Program Manager for the Middle East for the Center for Civil-Military Relations; the holder of the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he also served as Director of the London Middle East Institute; the Director of the American Research Center in Egypt; University Professor of Middle East Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia; and assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley; the College of Europe, Warsaw; the Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po; and the University of Sydney. In 2016 he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar, Middle East Initiative, Kennedy School, Harvard University. His most recent books are Egypt (2018) and Political Economies of the Middle East and North Africa (2020), both published by Polity Press. He is the editor in chief of The Handbook of Contemporary Egypt, published by Routledge in 2021.  

Analysis: In the face of a deepening financial crisis, political pressures, and growing public discontent, Egypt's president is facing a number of mortal threats that could spell his demise.

02 February, 2023

Comment: Inflating the Saudi-US arms deal and US complicity in the Khashoggi cover-up is the equivalent of two kings swapping favours, writes Robert Springborg.

28 November, 2018

The long read: Sisi's education reforms hope to discipline the country's youth and recruit its top performers as loyal technocrats to serve the regime, writes Robert Springborg.

29 October, 2018

Comment: Sisi may be hoping for a quiet bailout, but there are no quick fixes for Egypt's mammoth debt crisis, writes Robert Springborg.

03 September, 2018

Comment: Washington could decide to pull the rug out from under Lebanon's economy, leaving Hizballah with an empty shell, writes Robert Springborg.

06 August, 2018

Comment: Egypt's military is as politically entrenched as its Brazilian counterpart was during the 'intense repression' period of its military dictatorship, writes Robert Springborg.

31 July, 2018

Comment: Sisi's attempt to co-opt Mo Salah and the Egyptian team has had disastrous consequences for everyone, writes Robert Springborg.

03 July, 2018

Comment: In comparison to Iran's remarkably successful record of building militaries and their associated states, the US has little to show, writes Robert Springborg.

30 April, 2018

Comment: Egypt's election might have been a farce, but it has emboldened Sisi on his path of consolidating personal power, writes Robert Springborg.

13 April, 2018

Comment: For Mohammed bin Salman, $10 billion is not an investment in Egypt's future, so much as a payment to its military for supporting his ambitions, writes Robert Springborg.

22 March, 2018