ABSTRACT
In domestic policy, the Egyptian military rulers broke sharply with the old regime; but in foreign policy, they introduced changes in style rather than substance. The dynasty of Egypt collapsed in the opening months of 1952. For less than two years, from September 1954 to June 1956, the eleven members of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), as the Free Officers executive renamed itself after the coup d‘etat, sat in the cabinet, where they outnumbered the civilians. The turning point came with the promulgation in June 1956 of the first republican constitution at the time of the much heralded termination of the “transition period,” a term which was, in the RCC’s manner of speaking, a synonym for military rule. The engrossment of the junta with military modernization and expansion was a policy and a mood also inherited from the monarchy.
