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Information and communication technologies (ICT)-presented technological developments, such as soil sensors, remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, have shown the potential to increase crop output and quality while consuming fewer resources and having a smaller environmental impact. The first step in ushering in a new era of technological advancement in the agricultural sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain is evaluating how prepared farmers and farm owners are to adopt these technologies. Therefore, the current study examines how ICT are prepared, accepted and adopted in agriculture in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The study's goals were attained by using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. A survey was created to learn more about the present state of ICT usage in agriculture, including its awareness, readiness, acceptance and adoption. To strengthen the conclusions and investigate the current situation related agricultural behavior, production and the use of information technology (IT) to support agriculture in the chosen farms, four exploratory field visits were made. Additionally, a strength-weakness-opportunities-threat (SWOT)-threat, opportunities, weakness, strength (TOWS) analysis was performed to evaluate the Kingdom of Bahrain's readiness and long-term plans for implementing ICT in agriculture. On the basis of secondary data, survey data and interview findings, SWOT-TOWS were created.

The findings revealed insufficient knowledge and awareness about ICT in agriculture. Despite the high level of digital infrastructure readiness in Bahrain, farmers are not ready to adopt sophisticated devices and complex applications such as crop sensing tools, the internet of things (IoT) and AI; however, there is a strong acceptance among farmers to implement new ideas and agriculture approaches.

The Arabian Gulf Countries, which are characterized by an arid environment, sporadic vegetation, weak soil and a lack of water supplies and arable land, have few studies that explore the crucial role of ICT in growing the agricultural sector. Considering the influence of ICT on the provision of more productive agriculture in a challenging and complicated environment, the study contributes to the body of knowledge by conducting an empirical investigation that addresses an urgent issue. The study is considered one of the few in the countries of the Arabian Gulf to address this subject.

Years after the 2011 uprising Egypt, it seems that the country’s non-Islamist parties are still included in the political game. After significant alterations in their political sphere by mid-2013 at the advent of the Muslim Brother exclusion and the subsequent discrediting of Salafi al-Nour party, non-Islamist parties took clear part in the mobilization for presidential elections (2014, 2018) and competed for legislative seats in 2015. Nonetheless, it is difficult to expect them to turn into long-term key political players with clear-cut ideological postures, unique platforms and strong grass root mobilization. With the exception of the electoral gains scored by numbered parties like Free Egyptians’ party and Nation’s Future in 2015 legislative elections, these parties seem to be lagging behind esp. in terms of their popular base; who became winners at the advent of the radical exclusion of the MB from July 2013 onwards.

This paper is based on archival research and guided by basic assumptions of rational choice institutionalism, mainly game-theoretic versions of the approach. It is divided into four sections, three of them are chronological and the last one is thematic.

Egypt’s non-Islamists engaged in the post-2011 political sphere, with strong Islamist rivals crippling their political chances in the first two years following the 2011 uprising. They surely capitalized on the exclusion and discrediting of the latter, but they suffered lack of ideological clarity and fragmentation from 2011 onwards with no enough evidence these weaknesses were surpassed after Islamists were “out of their way”. The only strand of non-Islamist parties which came out as “game winners” were those possessing the resources and enjoying overt “friendly” relations with al-Sisi regime. Nonetheless, internal conflicts inside key secularist parties shed light on their capacity to turn into long-term players in Egypt’s political sphere.

Very few papers were published on Egypt’s secularists parties after the 2011 uprising from the perspective of the alteration that occurred in their political environment affecting their political weight and gains. More generally, literature on non-ruling parties in authoritarian contexts mostly reduce these parties to secondary roles allocated by ruling regimes. The paper seeks to overcome both shortages.