ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 reviews external relations which necessarily echoed numerous other processes within and beyond Egypt. It shows how such developments as the Cold War, détente, and the demise of the USSR temporarily increased or limited the room for manoeuvre open to policymakers in Cairo. While analyzing in detail relations with major actors, the chapter focuses on a number of basic objectives which successive governments pursued since the end of World War Two: the achievement and defence of political independence which in the days of Nasser was increasingly linked to what at the time was defined as economic development; partly as a by-product, the search for regional influence in the Middle East and North Africa that would forestall attempts to limit or roll back independence; and, reinforced by the same concern, attempts to contain Israel, an objective that in the eyes of some involved its disappearance. From the 1960s onwards, ambitious development policies, wars with Israel, and the growing inability to reconcile expenditure with revenues established the search for rents and other external support as a major foreign policy objective. It obviously dovetailed with the attempt by all governments to use external relations as a means to maintain their own grip on power at home.
