ABSTRACT
Egypt’s primary identity was as the political, social, and cultural leader of the Arab world. The country had therefore not always shown much interest in, and sometimes respect for, its African identity. The unspoken Afro-Arab pact in global politics from the 1960s, both at the UN and in the Non-Aligned Movement, was to lend African support to the Palestinian cause in exchange for Arab support for southern African liberation. One of the most important diplomatic arenas in Boutros-Ghali’s efforts to avoid Egypt’s diplomatic isolation was the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formed in Belgrade in September 1961. The NAM was created by developing countries in the global South who sought to avoid becoming entangled in the cross hairs of the ideological Cold War confrontation between East and West. Boutros had shown much dynamism, determination and dexterity in making the transition from scholar to diplomat.
