
Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by some 30 Bedouin tribes, has long been a lawless land that serves as a buffer between Egypt and Israel. But it is now drawing comparisons to the ungoverned tribal regions of Pakistan as networks of Bedouin tribes, Sinai’s criminal elements and radical Islamists have begun to capitalize on Egypt’s post-revolution security vacuum by increasingly engaging in drug and arms smuggling, human trafficking and terrorism. The escalating lawlessness in the Sinai risks turning the region into a powder keg.