Then & Now - Authoritarianism and Patriarchy from Ancient Egypt to the Present: A Conversation with Kara Cooney

Authoritarianism and Patriarchy from Ancient Egypt to the Present: A Conversation with Kara Cooney

03/08/23 • 46 min

Recent years have witnessed a stark rise across the globe in populist leaders whose policies are implicitly, or even explicitly, authoritarian. The policies of these leaders are sometimes at odds with their populist rhetoric in that they reward the elite few at the expense of the masses. Yet this trend is not new. As far back as ancient Egypt, we see authoritarian leaders collecting and retaining wealth and power in the hands of the elite. What are the parallels between the authoritarian governments of the past and the present? How can we use the past to cast a critical eye on our own social patterns and willingness to hand over power to the few?

In this week's episode of then & now, we sit down with Professor Kara Cooney to explore how and why authoritarian, populist leaders, from ancient Egypt to the present, gain and maintain power, and seek to understand why the many so often choose to give up power to the few.

Dr. Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA. In her recent book, The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World (National Geographic Press 2021), Kara turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs to understand why so many often give up power to the few and what it can mean for our future. Her current research in coffin reuse investigates the socioeconomic and political turmoil that plagued Late Bronze Age Egypt, ultimately affecting their funerary and burial practices. Results from this research will be published in a forthcoming volume, Recycling for Death (American University in Cairo Press).

Previous Episode

China-US Relations in the Age of the Indo-Pacific: A Conversation with Rosemary Foot

China-US relations have again drawn global attention after a Chinese high-altitude balloon, suspected of carrying surveillance equipment, was shot down off the Carolina coast by the United States military. Beyond concerns about espionage and national security, this incident captured the US government’s larger anxieties about China’s growing influence in international affairs, and its threat to long-standing American hegemony in transnational governance. On the economic front, as the US-led economic system faces ongoing criticism, particularly since the 2008 financial crisis, the ‘Chinese model’ has emerged as a serious competitor. Another important development is China’s effort to redefine sovereign states — rather than international institutions — as the best guarantor of human rights.

In the first episode of this new occasional series looking at the past, present, and future of the US-led international order, our host Ben Zdencanovic is joined by the scholar of international relations Rosemary Foot. The two discuss the recent history of China-US relations, why China sees the Indo-Pacific bloc as the new NATO, and how the country seeks to reshape the norms dictating diplomacy and development.

Rosemary Foot is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations and a Research Associate at the Oxford China Centre. Her research interests and publications cover China-US relations, human-rights diplomacy, and Asian regional institutions. An Emeritus Fellow at St Antony’s College, she is the author of, most recently, China, the UN, and Human Protection: Beliefs, Power, Image (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Next Episode

Re-examining US Foreign Policy: Can There Be an Alternative to Imperialism?

The legitimacy of a US-led global order has been taken for granted by many in political, diplomatic and intellectual circles in the United States and even beyond. Yet this narrative of a postwar liberal order sits uncomfortably with a long history of imperial expansion and settler-colonial practices that the US has pursued over the centuries. Host Ben Zdencanovic sits down with Aziz Rana, a scholar of US constitutionalism, race, and empire at Cornell Law School, to discuss the politics of racial and cultural hierarchy that have been integral to American engagement with the world. From the days of frontier expansion and Wilsonian internationalism to the postwar push for modernization and a ‘rules-based-order’, arguments for American primacy have been deeply informed by ideas and practices of supremacy.

How has America’s imperial stance abroad impacted its domestic politics? Is there any prospect of forging an inclusive and progressive American foreign policy? And why must a politics of anti-imperialism require an equally strong commitment to anti-authoritarianism as well? These are the questions that guide this conversation between two scholars of the US in the world.