ABSTRACT
The United States has maintained a close relationship and fostered trust with the Egyptian ruling entourage, and the military establishment in particular, for over thirty years. However, this elite-level relationship has fed a well-documented spiral of distrust towards the United States in Egyptian society. Tying the post-Arab Spring US‒Egypt relationship to debates on trust within International Relations, the chapter argues trust should not be reduced to personal relations or posited to exist between black-boxed anthropomorphised states. The focus on the levels of trust and constructivist insights clarifies that American complicity with Egypt’s authoritarian regime has created a trust-distrust nexus.
