Americans are split on whether or not Egypt is a friend of the United States, but most doubt Egypt will become a stable, democratic country in the short-term.
In October the Obama administration announced that it would be 'recalibrating' its military and financial aid to Egypt, a move that involved suspending certain arms shipments to Egypt. The administration cited concerns over the the military government in the country as well as long-term priorities of how best to secure American interests in a region. The move has proved controversial, however, and not just among Egyptians. A number of US lawmakers, including some who had called for limited responses to the military crackdown in Egypt, have called the move potentially damaging for US counter-terror efforts and detrimental to the US-Egyptian strategic relationship. The US government has repeatedly said that its main focus in Egypt is to help the country form a stable, democratic government and has criticized certain acts of the new military government, including a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
The latest research from YouGov shows, however, that Americans now narrowly lean towards thinking that Egypt is now an unfriendly country. 34% say that Egypt is either 'unfriendly' (28%) towards the United States or is an 'enemy' (6%) of our country. 29% believe that Egypt is either an 'ally' (7%) or acts in a 'friendly' (22%) way.
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This conceals something of a partisan split, however, as Democrats are the only political group more likely to say that Egypt is friendly (36%) towards us than unfriendly (25%). 40% of Republicans say that Egypt is either an enemy or acts in an unfriendly way, with 28% saying that Egypt is a friend or ally.
When asked whether Egypt will have a stable government, most are skeptical that it will happen any time soon, with only 8% saying that the government will stabilize in the next year or two. 38% say that a stable government is the most likely end result in Egypt, but not for some time, while 28% say that Egypt will never have a stable government.
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Out of the 46% of Americans who said that Egypt would, at some point, have a stable government most (66%) are optimistic that Egypt will have a democratic government, after a couple of years. 20% predict that Egypt will have a stable government, but that it will not be democratic, reflecting concerns that the Egyptian military is set to prolong its rule over a country that had been under military rule from the 1953 coup to the election of Mohammed Morsi, the deposed Islamist President.
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Asked whether the United States should give preference towards pro-American countries who might not be democratic or democratic states that might not be pro-American, there is a significant partisan divide. Democrats (38%) tend to say that the US should support democratic states, while nearly half of Republicans (48%) think that preference should be given to pro-American states regardless of their internal politics. Independents are generally unsure (45%), though are more likely to want to support pro-American allies (35%) than democratic states (19%).
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Full poll results can be found here.
Image: Google.