November 24, 2013
Egypt’s changing of the
guard in July brought a number of AUC alumni into the interim government formed
by President Adly Mansour. Nabil Fahmy, who earned undergraduate and graduate
degrees from the university, became foreign minister. To assume his post, Fahmy
took a public service leave from AUC, where he is the founding dean of the
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (and editorial board chairman of the
Cairo Review). Meanwhile, Ziad Bahaa El-Din became deputy prime minister and
minister for planning and international cooperation; Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour
was tapped as minister of industry and foreign trade; Ahmed Galal is the new finance
minister; and Abdel Aziz Fadel was named minister of civil aviation. In a
September 28 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Fahmy told the
international community that new presidential and parliamentary elections would
be held by next spring. The ouster of President Mohammed Morsi last July, Fahmy
added, “showed the world that the will of the people cannot be broken. That it
can grant authority, just as it can remove it from the hands of those who abuse
it.”