ABSTRACT
As leader of the military junta that ousted Egypt's corrupt pro-British monarchical regime, Gamal Abdel Nasser led the Arab nationalist movement and opened the Middle East to Soviet influence during Cold War, altering the geopolitical dynamics of the region in the following decades. Internationally, Nasser embraced the non-alignment movement, in which developing countries avoided alliances with either Cold War superpower. Humiliated by another Arab defeat in the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967, Nasser attempted to resign but was forced to rescind his resignation by popular demand. In domestic sphere, Nasser's policies, while providing economic and educational opportunities to more Egyptians than before, resulted in a bureaucracy that grew enormously with its vast new responsibilities, but eventually became inefficient and unresponsive. He also negotiated closer political and economic ties to the West, particularly the United States, raising the specter of dependency that Nasser and his officers had wanted to eliminate in their struggles against the British and the corrupt monarchy.
