In the beginning
Changes of track since 1952 have left Egypt with a lot of catching up to do, writes Ossama El-Ghazali Harb

Stumbling into radicalism?
The July Revolution was never as radical as it sometimes seemed, writes Gamil Mattar, tracing the main lines of Egyptian foreign policy since 1952

Mutating definitions
At an Institut du Monde Arabe conference on political and cultural connections Mohamed Sid-Ahmed raised three critical questions connected to the situation of the Palestinians

Winning the war against AIDS
To mark the opening of the XIVth International AIDS Conference (7-12 July 2002) in Barcelona Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, and Jérôme Bindé, outline the actions necessary to contain the spread of the virus

The same mistakes
Washington must learn from its Cold War errors if it really wants the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state, writes Mohamed El-Sayed Said

Keeping bad company
The extreme right is making inroads into European politics and Arabs have no reason to celebrate, writes Amr Elchoubaki

Editorial
First things first

Close up
Under mandate
By Salama A Salama

Soapbox
What if?
By Magdi Mehanna

Learning to think
By Naguib Mahfouz

This week: GAMAL ABDEL-NASSER