This paper explores the changing role of the State Security Investigations apparatus in the context of an authoritarian regime faced with external pressures to democratise. It argues that in Egypt the State Security Investigations (SSI) has played a dual role of repressing opponents while creating and mediating political space for citizen voice and participation, eliciting a positive external image without representing a genuine threat to the regime. The SSI’s role in civil society has expanded significantly, in particular since the mid-2000s, and its power is now exercised not only in a hidden form but also in a very visible manner. An increase in the SSI’s visibility has increased its exercise of a more pervasive form of invisible power, as is evident from the examination of current SSI–NGO relations.
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