 More than a year after the Arab Spring, Egypt continues to struggle with the political and social fallout from the protests that drove President Hosni Mubarak from power and resulted in the first ever freely elected head of state. Brian Knoblock talked with USM President and Egyptian scholar Selma Batman about the future of this key Mideast country. President Batman, there have been huge changes, huge events happening in Egypt. Some of them have been important, some of them have been overshadowed by other events, the disillusion of the parliament by the military, and just give us a brief rundown of sort of who the players are and where we sort of are at the moment. As a result of the Arab Spring and the events that took down former President Mubarak, there was a presidential election. The election has two rounds. In the first round, there was a multiplicity of political parties with a whole variety of points of view, left-wing, socialist, Islamic, democratic, workers' part, the whole gamut of difference of opinion. Two candidates emerged as the top two vote-getters, Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq. Morsi, of course, is from the Muslim Brotherhood, Shafiq related to the Mubarak administration from the military perspective and also as a former prime minister. What's interesting to note is that in the first round, there were a diversity of opinions expressed. When it came to the runoff between Shafiq and Morsi, the choices narrowed significantly. Many people, this was a vote for the lesser of two evils. They were worried about the Muslim Brotherhood. They were worried about a reversion to the authoritarianism of Mubarak. Those people who voted for Shafiq, I think, voted for security, voted for an end to chaos in the society and a hope for an economic future. Those who voted for Morsi did so for a variety of reasons. They were Islamists. They were people who did not want to go back in time to the Mubarak era. One thing that's important to say is this is the very first democratic election in Egypt's history. With the actions by the military, though, does President Morsi have any power or can he have any power? So now we're faced with a very fragile situation. The military is in charge. The military has dissolved parliament on a procedural technicality. It has rewritten a constitution. It controls foreign policy, and it has huge economic interests across the country. So Mohammed Morsi faces a situation where he's a president with no authority. That being said, there are people in the country who worry about what it will mean for the Muslim Brotherhood to be in charge of the country. But for the entire country, the most important issue, like in our own country, is the economy. The Egyptian economy is in shambles. It's teetering on the brink of collapse. If the president, working with the military, cannot improve economic conditions, then people will be enormously disappointed and distressed. In particular, 60% of the population is under 30. This demographic is the group that is experiencing the highest rate of unemployment. They live a status quo existence. They can't marry because they have no jobs. They can't start a family because they have no jobs. They have no place to release their energy. They're creative. They're professional. They're intellectual energies. They're productive energies because there's no job. It's a potentially dangerous situation for the country. So we had the Arab Spring last year. Are we going to have an Arab Summer this year, do you think? It's unclear. Academics and pundits predict at a peril in the Middle East because we're not sure. But it could be cataclysmic if the military absolutely takes over completely and emasculates political parties, the presidency, and the Constitution. Young people in particular will fill the streets in protest. A lot of things that may happen will have to keep a close eye on it. Maybe you'll come back and give us an update as we go along. Thank you very much. I will indeed. Thank you.