Egypt’s reliance on “public diplomacy” teams as a PR tool to convince the US and itscitizens that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is popular largely miss the mark and fail to alter Egypt’s image with American scholars in particular, Mohamed Nosseir writes for Al Arabiya. These scholars have a deep understanding of what’s really happening on the ground in Egypt; they specifically concern themselves with democracy (or lack thereof) — and the use of popular diplomacy as a promotional tool only serves to reinforce these scholars’ negative views on Egypt and El Sisi. “The United States, and many other countries, expect President Sisi to establish a ruling mechanism that allows conflicting political parties to live in harmony and enables the smooth transfer of power — so far, Egypt has not taken a single step in this direction,” Nosseir says.

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