ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines basic points of an argument—that the revolutionary change in Egyptian foreign policy owed as much to Second World War and its aftermath as to the drives and designs of Gamal Abdel Nasser and his colleagues. It was expected that Britain, having won one of the major victories of the war upon Egyptian soil, would actually tighten its hold over Egyptian affairs. It seemed so to British officials. In the 1940s, as in the 1980s, there were two basic schools of thought about the postwar power struggle. Not surprisingly, the choice between the two became a highly partisan business in Egyptian politics. In Egypt, diplomacy had long been subservient to domestic political needs. The positions taken by the Wafd, its rival minority parties, or the palace vis-a-vis the British position in the Nile Valley were very much a function of the party strife.
