Amy Hawthorne
Deputy Director for Research
Arab Politics · Egypt · Human Rights · Tunisia · US Foreign Aid · US Foreign Policy
Prior to joining POMED in October 2015, Amy served as Resident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, where she focused on U.S. policy toward Egypt and U.S. and European strategies to support political and economic reform in the post-2011 Arab world, with a concentration on Tunisia. Before joining the Atlantic Council in April 2013, Amy was an appointee at the U.S. Department of State for two years, where she helped to coordinate U.S. support for Egypt's transition and advised on the U.S. response to the Arab Spring. Amy previously served as founding executive director of the Hollings Center for International Dialogue, a nongovernmental organization operating in Washington and Istanbul that promotes mutual understanding between the United States and predominantly Muslim countries.
She was also an Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she was the Founding Editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin (now Sada) and analyzed political reform in the Arab world. At the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Hawthorne was Senior Program Officer for the Middle East, managing democracy programs across the Arab world. She has published a number of widely read analyses on U.S. policy and democracy promotion in the Arab world and frequently is quoted in the media. Amy graduated with honors in history from Yale University, with a focus on the Middle East, and obtained her MA in modern Middle Eastern studies at the University of Michigan, where she concentrated on Islamic law. She has advanced skills in Arabic and has lived and traveled extensively throughout the Arab world (especially Egypt) as well as in Turkey.
From Amy Hawthorne
Kaïs Saïed's Next Target in Tunisia: Civil Society
Sheridan Cole, Amy Hawthorne, Zachary White
Between the Lines + more
Between the Lines: Mona El-Ghobashy on Egypt's Revolution
Mona El-Ghobashy, Amy Hawthorne
Deputy Director for Research Amy Hawthorne writes for ISPI on Sidelining of Human Rights in U.S.-Egypt Relations
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POMED'S Amy Hawthorne Testifies on Egypt before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Amy Hawthorne Testifies on Egypt before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Amy Hawthorne In the News
"The invasion of Ukraine has affected the Egyptian economy, especially in regards to wheat prices, as has the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the underlying problems and roots of the crisis have been brewing for years as the economic crisis is largely driven by political economic choices which President Sisi has made."
Egypt's currency crisis is killing young people's dreams
New Arab
, 01/24/2023
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Amy Hawthorne said the conditions cited on the tranche of $75 million included progress on political prisoners and on due process. "Any objective observers would say Egypt has not made clear and constant progress on either of those conditions, especially the second one," she said. "This is rewarding the Egyptian government for something that is at most a half measure."
U.S. blocks $130 million in aid to Egypt over human rights
"In this war, Egypt is not—and does not want to become—part of the robust Western defense of Ukraine. Biden's call to defend the larger cause of democracy has zero resonance for President al-Sissi."
Ahead of summit, U.S. Middle East allies show Ukraine limited support
"I think it is very short-sighted of the Biden administration not to mount a more effective policy to try to protect and preserve Tunisian democracy. Because it was a flawed democracy before July 25. But it was…the only one in the Arab world."
America and the Kais Saied coup
Arab Digest
"It's commendable that the US stood firm on the human rights conditions it had set. Yet, in the bigger picture, the administration remains far too supportive of the Sisi regime and human rights remain far too marginal in US policy."
US to reprogram military aid to Egypt over rights record, lawmakers say
Al-Monitor
"Egypt remains an authoritarian US security partner in the Arab world, and the US, as we know historically, has been very reluctant to push against authoritarian Arab allies who are partners on counterterrorism and security."
Africa News Tonight
"I don't think any progress in the human rights situation has been made over the past decade. In fact, by all accounts, by all measures, the human rights situation today is far worse than what it was on January 25, 2011."
"Biden wants cooperative and strong relations with Sisi more than he really wants to press him on human rights. And that's very regrettable because the human rights situation is atrocious, abysmal. It's a stain on the United States' record."
U.S. and Egypt meet for strategic talks
Events Featuring Amy Hawthorne
Supporting Democracy and Human Rights in Turkey: Can the United States and Europe Do More?
Can Tunisia's Democracy Survive?
Ten Years Since Tahrir Square: Egypt Then and Now