Militarization and the Reconstitution of Statehood in the Arab World

This paper examines how military politicization, militarization, and geopolitical strategy reshape statehood in post-2011/2019 Egypt and Algeria. These forces hollow out legitimacy, sovereignty, and accountability, replacing popular consent with coercion, militarized nationalism, and unelected elites, while opaque power networks and external dependencies weaken sovereignty behind civilian façades. Facing existential threats from mass mobilization, incumbents—often externally backed—deepened counter-revolutionary strategies, entrenching authoritarianism rooted since independence. Militaries function as structural pillars, not just political actors: politicization blurs distinctions between state, regime, and government, while militarization spreads through internal security, intelligence dominance, and economic control. Sovereignty becomes coercive, favoring stability over representation, with legitimacy reframed around national salvation rather than constitutional consent. Geopolitically, both countries leverage alliances to secure legitimacy, resources, and cover for repression, posing as stability guarantors—though this dependence undermines autonomy and subordinates national interests to regime survival, despite high, poorly scrutinized military spending.