The Egyptian Revolution Left the Army Untouched

"We the People of Egypt, in the name of God, the Merciful, and with His assistance, state: This is our Constitution, the document of the revolution of January 25, 2011, which our youth began, around which our People gathered, and with which our armed forces sided".

The first paradox lies in the preamble to the Egyptian constitution approved by referendum in December 2012: the army is included among those actors who supported the revolution that overthrew Mubarak. You read that correctly: the Egyptian Armed Foces, backbone of the previous regime, were through SCAF guarantors of the transition to the new order without making too much noise. This is the comment made by Tom Ginsburg, who teaches Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago and is co-director of the Comparative Constitutions Project. He underlines the fact that the constituent process was short but intensely debated: "The military stayed in their barracks well knowing that no matter what happened they would maintain their privileged status under the new constitution". The fact that the army is among the winners of the revolution is confirmed by reading other articles of the constitutional text.

The new fundamental law establishes that the Minister of Defense shall be a member of the officer corps. In addition, the National Defense Council has been split into two separate organs: the National Security Council, a mainly civilian body, and a new defense council, composed in the majority by military officers. This solution has important effects on the control of the military budget, which was the army's foremost preoccupation in the new constitutional order. Considering the wide autonomy the army enjoyed under Mubarak, it is self-evident that it was a priority for the military preventing their being submitted to a newly-elected Parliament. The solution written into the Constitution satisfies the army, because on budgetary issues it's the defence council, dominated by the military, that decides.

But the concessions granted to the armed forces do not stop here, since the National Defense Council will have to consulted either on bills involving them, and especially in the case of declarations of war or troops deployment abroad. In geopolitical terms, this is fundamental because in theory it would prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from declaring war on the mere basis of parliamentary majority, thus preserving the fragile peace between Egypt and Israel.

Lastly, there is the thorny issue of the relations between army and citizens. In the case (not too theoretical) of clashes between army and demonstrators, the latter could be taken to military courts for crimes against the army (this is in partial continuity with the previous regime). Naturally, the proof is in the pudding, because the facts on the ground are what matters, and a lot will depend on how the new constitutional provisions will be interpreted, but the suspicion of a "Leopard syndrome" having hit Egypt is high: everything must change for nothing to change.. for the army, at least.