|Egypt Table of Contents Despite certain constants, Egyptian
foreign policy underwent substantial evolution shaped by the
differing values and perceptions of the country's presidents and
the changing constraints and opportunities of its environment.
Under Nasser the core of the regime's ideology and the very
basis of its legitimacy was radical nationalism. Nasser sought
to end the legacy of Egypt's long political subordination to
Western imperialism, to restore its Arab-Islamic identity
diluted by a century of Westernization, and to launch
independent national economic development. He also aimed to
replace Western domination of the Arab states with Egyptian
leadership of a nonaligned Arab world and thus to forestall
security threats and to enhance Egypt's stature as head of a
concert of kindred states. Nasser's foreign policy seemed, until
1967, a qualified success. He adeptly exploited changes in the
international balance of power, namely the local weakening of
Western imperialism, the Soviet challenge to We