Decision Support Model for Transforming Maritime International Cooperation Commitments into Development Investment Opportunities: Egyptian Ports Case Study

International cooperation is a defining instrument of contemporary maritime governance, as treaties, memoranda of understanding, strategic partnerships, and technical cooperation frameworks increasingly shape the development trajectories of ports. Within the Egyptian maritime sector, however, a persistent gap separates the growing number of international cooperation commitments from their translation into bankable investments and sustainable development outcomes. Centralized governance, fragmented accountability, and the absence of a dedicated institutional interface constrain the capacity of port authorities to capture the developmental value of the agreements they conclude. This research proposes and empirically validates a Decision Support Model centered on a formally mandated International Cooperation Unit (ICU), operationalized through a six-phase, eighteen-step framework aligned with ISO 44001, OECD DAC evaluation criteria, IMO/IAPH technical cooperation protocols, and PMBOK/PRINCE2 project management standards. A concurrent mixed-methods design combined a structured, branched questionnaire with semi-structured expert interviews, yielding 76 validated expert responses across four professional tiers (operational to executive leadership), drawn from 31 countries in six world regions. Internal consistency was adequate to good (Cronbach's alpha = 0.72–0.84), and non-parametric methods (Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney) were adopted in response to widespread non-normality in the data. The results reveal strong expert consensus on ICU criticality (mean = 4.31/5.0) against markedly lower institutional political will (mean = 2.76/5.0), a 1.55-point gap that identifies political will as the decisive implementation barrier. Statistically significant between-group differences in governance channel clarity (H = 8.71, p = .034), An expert perceived 78.6% improvement in cooperation management effectiveness attributable to integrated decision support systems, and an overall framework viability rating of 4.14/5.0 provide convergent evidence for the model. The research contributes the first empirical evidence base for ICU structures in maritime port authorities, equips the Alexandria Port Authority with an implementation roadmap—the first of its kind in Africa and the Arab region—and directly supports Egypt's strategic vision of becoming a regional hub for transport, logistics, and transit trade.