British Foreign Policy towards Islamic Awakening؛ Case study: Egypt

Islamic awakening in Egypt and the fall of the dictatorial regime of Husni Mubarak as a strategic partner of Britain and the United States have changed the North-African region's political-security arrangements. The overthrow of Mubarak and the taking of the government by the Muslim Brotherhood led the British authorities to review their policies towards Egypt. Therefore, this article is written to answer this key question that “How does Britain manage, direct or control the Islamic movements and Islamic awakening to protect its national goals and policies?” The results of this study show that British policy towards the Islamic awakening is based on the neo-colonial approaches that seek the revival of powerful dependent states. For this reason, the state-building by the United Kingdom in Egypt is based on two foundations of "education and networking." In the first step, the Egyptian elite, in line with the British policies, take over the power, a role which is played by the Egyptian army right now. In the second step, the training and rebuilding of military and security institutions are on the agenda. The last step is the education of the media, women and youth, and simultaneously, entrepreneurship and development. It also reinforces feminism and the development of journalism and political education within the framework of secularist ideas, which is essentially aimed at curbing the emergence of Islamist currents in Egypt.