“The world is changing its features at an accelerating pace, and the rules of the game are being reshaped. The concept of power is no longer what we once knew it to be. We are entering a new era, which we can explore through Dr. Hossam Badrawi’s latest book, A World Unraveling.

But should we simply leave this world fragmented without offering ideas and visions? Does Dr. Badrawi have something to offer that might help us navigate and contain the situation?

Yes—and this is what he promises us in his second book, Towards an Integrated Educational Philosophy for Human Development.”

The two books are available in both Arabic and English.

We look forward to welcoming you!

In-Person Attendance

Bibliotheca Bookstore – Sheikh Zayed

Second Floor, Unit SY-203, Building F3, Arkan Plaza Mall, First Sheikh Zayed, Giza Governorate.

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Virtual Attendance via Zoom

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

7:30–9:30 PM Cairo Time

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The meeting was attended by Dr. Mohamed Lotfy, President of the British University in Egypt and former professor at Alexandria University, and Dr. Mohamed Kamal, Professor at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science.

The meeting focused on discussing the Ministry of Higher Education’s projects and exploring ways to integrate culture as a key component in shaping the intellectual and cultural consciousness of university students.

Dr. Hossam Badrawi chaired the committee responsible for developing Egypt’s 2030 Vision for Education in 2014. He has repeatedly stated that the vision was not implemented in a way that translated its goals into meaningful and effective action.

The post Dr. Hossam Badrawi Meets Minister of Higher Education at the Ministry of Culture in Zamalek appeared first on Dr. Hossam Badrawi.

Among those honored at this year’s ceremony was the late Professor Dr. Tamer Zakaria, in recognition of his distinguished contributions and his scientific and humanitarian stature.

Cairo University President Dr. Mohamed Sami Abdel-Sadek warmly welcomed Dr. Hossam Badrawi, thinker, politician, and university professor, who attended as a representative of the family, alongside the late professor’s wife, Dr. Amira, and Dr. Mona Abu El-Ezz, Dr. Hossam Badrawi’s niece and the sister of the late Dr. Amr Abu El-Ezz, former Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry.

Dr. Amira Badrawi received the certificate of appreciation presented in honor of the late professor’s memory. The gesture reflected the noble values of loyalty and remembrance, as well as the university’s commitment to preserving the legacy of its scholars—those who have left an enduring mark on the minds of their students and within the halls of their distinguished university.

The post On “Loyalty Day,” Cairo University Honors Its Distinguished Scholars and Presents a Certificate of Appreciation to the Late Dr. Tamer Zakaria’s Family appeared first on Dr. Hossam Badrawi.

Dr. Hossam Badrawi opened the day’s activities with a tour of the exhibition showcasing the children’s handmade creations. He walked among their artworks, expressing his great admiration for the creativity and talent reflected in their work. He praised the artistic intelligence demonstrated by the children and the genuine talents nurtured by the association with care and dedication.

A key part of the Future Library’s mission is to introduce children to the cultures of different peoples around the world. This year, India was chosen as the library’s cultural focus.

The Deputy Ambassador of India attended the celebration and took part in the activities.

In previous years, the library’s cultural window—open to children and young people between the ages of 4 and 17—focused on Japan, Ukraine, and Greece, offering them opportunities to explore the traditions, cultures, and experiences of different societies.

The stage program began with an inspiring speech by Ms. Mirai Nessim, who expressed her pride in the achievements and remarkable performances of the children and young people of the library. With great joy, she announced that the number of participants in this year’s activities had reached 187 children and young people, who attended the celebration surrounded by the support and pride of their parents.

She concluded her remarks by expressing her deep appreciation to the entire team for their exceptional efforts throughout the year.

Dr. Hossam Badrawi then took the stage, extending his appreciation and gratitude to Ms. Mirai Nessim and her team for their unwavering dedication and the evident care they put into every detail.

In his remarks, Dr. Badrawi described Mirai Nessim as “the spirit of the Takatoff Association,” expressing his pride in and appreciation for the association’s team. He reaffirmed his continued support for this successful developmental model, embodied by the Future Library year after year, allowing it to remain a nurturing environment for creativity and personal growth.

Before the speeches, everyone stood for the Egyptian national anthem, after which the children took the audience on a vibrant artistic and cultural journey.

The performances opened with a joyful musical revue, followed by a series of musical and cultural performances presented in refined artistic forms. Through their performances, the children conveyed meaningful messages and valuable lessons about positive interaction, tolerance, and acceptance of differences.

The creativity extended beyond singing to include purposeful theatrical performances designed to educate and raise awareness among the audience in an engaging and entertaining way.

One of the highlights of the celebration was hearing the children themselves speak about the journey they had experienced with the library throughout the year. With enthusiasm, they shared what they had learned about the customs and cultures of different peoples and countries, presented their newly acquired general knowledge, and explained how the library had helped them challenge misconceptions and correct inaccurate ideas.

The celebration demonstrated once again that the Future Library, established by the Takatoff Association, is far more than a place for reading. It is a space for building character, nurturing and refining talents, and helping raise a generation that is knowledgeable, aware, creative, and capable of making a positive contribution to society.

The celebration was attended by:

• Ms. Hanan Mostafa, Head of the Central Administration for Women
• Dr. Samar El-Sanbaty, President of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood
• Members of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood
• Ms. Amal Emam, CEO of the Egyptian Red Crescent

The post Al-Agouza’s “Manara” Shines with the Talents of 187 Children at an Exceptional Celebration Under the Patronage of Dr. Hossam Badrawi appeared first on Dr. Hossam Badrawi.

The occasion was the closing ceremony of the 2026 cohort of the “Egypt’s Wonder” program, with the inspiring festivities running from 7:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., marking a new chapter in Egypt’s investment in the minds of its young innovators.

The vibrant cultural and educational celebration brought together a distinguished group of leaders from Egypt’s educational community, headed by Dr. Hossam Badrawi, the spiritual mentor of the Education First Foundation; Dr. Salma El-Bakry, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Education First Foundation; Dr. Mahmoud Hamza, Executive Director of the Foundation; Ms. Hanan Seif, Acting Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Bank; Dr. Akram Hassan, Assistant Minister of Education and Technical Education for Presidential Initiatives and Curriculum Development; as well as a distinguished group of prominent figures from the arts and the coaches of the Egypt’s Wonder team.

Dr. Salma El-Bakry delivered a speech on behalf of the Education First Foundation, presenting an overview of the extensive efforts undertaken over the past period to discover, nurture, and support these talented young people. She reaffirmed the Foundation’s commitment to investing in exceptional minds and creating opportunities for them to grow and thrive.

The exceptional program featured impressive presentations of innovations developed by the Science Team and Technology Team, interspersed with an elegant artistic performance. The evening concluded with a ceremony honoring the talented students, followed by a moving theatrical performance entitled “A Gift.”

Yet amid the formal and celebratory atmosphere, another kind of “gift” was waiting for the project’s spiritual mentor.

An Unexpected Surprise on Stage

The evening was not merely a celebration marking the graduation of a new cohort. It also included a warm and deeply personal moment.

The Egypt’s Wonder team and the Education First Foundation surprised Dr. Hossam Badrawi, a member of the Egypt’s Wonder Board of Trustees, with a special musical performance prepared to celebrate his birthday on stage.

Bows moved gently across violin strings as voices filled the theater with the familiar song “Happy Birthday, Beautiful One,” creating a heartfelt scene that reflected the affection and appreciation felt by everyone toward a figure so deeply admired.

An Inspiring Message and a Vision for the Future

Dr. Hossam Badrawi began his speech visibly moved and impressed, emphasizing that “Egypt’s Wonder is truly a name that lives up to itself.”

Addressing the audience, he explained that what had impressed him was not limited to the achievements and projects presented by the young participants. What impressed him even more was the unique harmony among the members of the team.

They worked with one spirit, setting aside the desire for individual recognition in favor of collective achievement and the success of the model as a whole.

Dr. Badrawi also praised what he described as an unprecedented step that embodies the meaning of institutionalization: allowing graduates of previous Egypt’s Wonder cohorts to participate, together with the Education First Foundation, in managing and supporting subsequent cohorts.

Such continuity, he noted, helps ensure the sustainability of success while expanding the circle of participants and contributors.

In a speech marked by philosophical and intellectual depth, Dr. Badrawi recalled a lecture he had previously delivered at Oxford University on the subject of “The Disintegration of Civilizations.”

He explained that when analyzing the strength of the United States, one finds that its civilizational model is not dependent on a particular president or government. Rather, it rests on a solid foundation of universities, scientific research, production, innovation, and creativity.

It is this ecosystem that is supported and developed until ideas are transformed into projects capable of generating income, allowing the country to become self-sustaining rather than dependent on external assistance.

He then delivered a message from the heart:

“This is what I would like to see happen in Egypt. Egypt possesses the potential and resources to become a great power. At the top of those resources stands its greatest wealth: its people and its youth. Egypt is rich in its children, and Egypt is a continuously renewed civilization.”

Dr. Badrawi then took the audience on a journey through his own passion for knowledge. Although he is a physician and university professor, he explained, he continues to explore other fields of knowledge, including physics and quantum physics.

He emphasized that these readings had transformed and deepened the way he looked at biology, reinforcing his belief that there are no limits to learning and that no age should stand in the way of acquiring knowledge.

The more knowledge one gains, the greater one’s ability to make an impact.

He also captured the audience’s attention with a profound philosophical reflection on the “butterfly effect,” explaining how an extremely small change—perhaps imperceptible at its beginning—can eventually produce an enormous transformation capable of shaking the entire universe.

In closing, Dr. Hossam Badrawi reaffirmed his unwavering faith in Egypt and in its capabilities. He also expressed his confidence that the young people of Egypt’s Wonder would continue to amaze everyone with their talents, creativity, and potential.

He extended his deep appreciation to all those in attendance and to the entire organizing team for creating a truly unforgettable evening.

A Celebration Led with Grace

Dr. Mahmoud Hamza skillfully and confidently hosted the ceremony, contributing through his presence and leadership to an atmosphere of harmony and joy among the audience and the honored students.

He seamlessly connected the different segments of the program, adding a refined and distinctive touch to the evening.

About the “Egypt’s Wonder” Project

Egypt’s Wonder is a scholarship program for talented students in Egypt’s public schools, sponsored by the Crédit Agricole Egypt Foundation for Development and the Education First Foundation, and conducted under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Technical Education and the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The program aims to identify talented students across Egypt in the fields of science, technology, and the arts, targeting students between the ages of 14 and 18.

The initiative reflects a belief in the vital role of civil society and the private sector in developing and motivating talented students.

Since its launch in the summer of 2018, the program has supported talented students through an annual summer camp. Each year, 25 talented students are selected in the fields of science, information technology, and the arts, with the participation and support of a number of companies and institutions.

Egypt’s Wonder seeks not only to discover talent, but also to open broader pathways for young people to develop their talents and transform their ideas and projects through partnerships with institutions and companies.

In the summer of 2018, the program celebrated the graduation of its first cohort. The top three students were rewarded with a week-long summer camp in the United States, serving as both recognition and encouragement for them to continue developing their diverse talents.

The program’s sponsors have also provided a variety of additional forms of support to the talented students participating in the camp, helping them transform their potential into lasting opportunities for growth and achievement.

The post A Night of Wonder at the Opera: A Symphony of Young Talents and a Surprise That Touched Dr. Hossam Badrawi’s Heart appeared first on Dr. Hossam Badrawi.

It is a great honour to stand before you today, in a place that has shaped so much of how the world thinks about the state, liberty, and power.

I want to begin with a question that seems almost naïve in its simplicity, and yet I have found that our confusion about it lies behind much of our confusion about modern history itself:

 **Do nations change overnight, the way weather changes between one evening and the next morning? Or is what we witness as a sudden explosion in the streets, in fact, a fruit that has been ripening for a long time beneath the surface — 

one we only notice the moment it falls, and so mistake for something newly born?**

I come to this question not primarily as a political scientist, but as a physician who has spent much of his career also thinking, and writing, about education, culture, and the Egypt’s  long and difficult passage toward modernity.

 I mention my medical background because it will return more than once in this lecture —

 not as an ornament, but because I have come to believe that the vocabulary of medicine —“ fever, chronic disease, tolerance, relapse “— describes the anatomy of political change more precisely than the vocabulary of triumph and defeat that dominates our news cycles.

Let me start by saying :

1. The Word “Revolution” Betrays Us

We use the word “revolution” to describe almost anything: popular anger, a coup, the fall of a ruler, even a passing rebellion against a single unpopular decision. 

The more we use the word, the less clear it becomes.

Is every mass uprising a revolution? 

Does the fall of a ruler mean the fall of a regime? 

Does a revolution begin the day the crowds fill the square, or years earlier, when ideas and expectations quietly begin to shift beneath a placid surface?

I want to propose, at the outset, a working definition, one I will test against history for the remainder of this lecture:

> **A revolution is a relatively rapid, fundamental transformation in the legitimacy of authority, the structure of the state, and the social contract — occurring when the gap between a changing society and the state’s capacity to absorb that change becomes unbridgeable by reform.**

This definition does not require violence, though violence is often present. 

It does not require a single leader or a unified ideology.

 And critically, it sets a threshold: an event only qualifies as a revolution if it produces new rules and new legitimacy — not merely a new face at the top of an old hierarchy.

This distinction matters enormously, 

Why?

because it lets us separate three phenomena we routinely conflate: 

**protest**, which says to a government, “change this policy”; 

**uprising**, which says, “we can no longer bear this rule”; and

 **revolution**, which asks the far more radical question — “who has the right to govern, on what basis, and under what covenant?”

1. Why the Poor Do Not Always Revolt

Here is where common sense misleads us. We assume, almost instinctively, that poverty and oppression are the fuel of revolution — that suffering accumulates until it detonates. 

But history does not confirm this. 

If poverty alone produced revolutions, the poorest societies on earth would be the most revolutionary.

 They are not. 

Some of the most repressive regimes in history have endured for generations, unchallenged.

“Alexis de Tocqueville”, writing in the nineteenth century about the French Revolution he had not personally witnessed, made an observation I consider one of the most penetrating in the whole of political thought: 

**the most dangerous moment for a bad government is typically not when it is at its most oppressive, but when it begins to reform.** Reform does not merely relieve pressure — it awakens something more volatile than anger: 

it awakens hope. 

A people who have known only repression may adapt to repression. 

But a people who glimpse the possibility of change will demand more of it — and when reform stalls midway, disappointment becomes a far more combustible force than despair ever was.

“James C. Davies” formalised this insight in his famous “J-curve” theory: revolutions tend to erupt not at the point of deepest deprivation, but after a period of rising expectations followed by a sharp reversal.

 And “Ted Robert Gurr” gave us the concept of **relative deprivation** — people do not revolt because they are poor in absolute terms; they revolt when they perceive a widening gap between what they believe they deserve and what they actually receive. 

This is why a frustrated university graduate in a middle-income country may feel more aggrieved than a subsistence farmer in a much poorer one: the graduate has glimpsed a door that then closed in his face, while the farmer never saw the door at all.

Education, media, and connectivity to the wider world do not merely inform people — they raise the ceiling of expectation. In this sense, revolutions often begin in the mind long before they begin in the street.

III. The Real Question: Why Do Some States Adapt and Others Break?

If suffering alone does not explain revolution, we are left with a more interesting — and, I think, more useful — question:

 **why do some states manage to reform themselves continuously, while others are eventually forced to break?**

I want to offer you a concept that I have found more analytically productive than the tired opposition between “revolution” and “reform”: 

**the state’s capacity for civilisational adaptation** — its ability to continuously adjust its laws, institutions, and distribution of power at a pace commensurate with the real transformation occurring within society: in knowledge, values, education, the role of women, family structures, technology, and citizens’ understanding of their own rights.

Society changes every single day — through schools, universities, the economy, migration, the internet, and successive generations. 

The state, by its very nature, moves more slowly: laws are not rewritten daily, bureaucracies are inherently conservative, and institutions resist change because they fear losing their own stability.

The problem is never simply that society changes, nor simply that the state is slow. The danger begins when the *gap* between their respective speeds grows wide enough that they effectively come to inhabit different eras. 

A citizen may live with the mind of the twenty-first century while parts of the state still reason with the instincts of the twentieth.

Allow me, once more, my medical metaphor: a physician does not regard a patient’s fever as the disease itself.

 Fever is a sign — sometimes a healthy sign of the body fighting back, sometimes a dangerous sign that something has gone badly wrong. 

The disease itself lies in whatever produced the fever. **Revolution, I would argue, is the fever, not the illness.** 

The illness is the state’s loss of capacity to adapt to a society that has already changed beneath it. 

And this is why lowering the fever — toppling a government, removing a president — does not by itself cure the disease. 

The deeper condition, the broken relationship between state and society, may persist long after the visible crisis has passed.

1. Legitimacy: The Question Every Revolution Is Really Asking

If I could distil this entire lecture into a single analytical tool, it would be this: 

**every revolution, whatever its slogans, is ultimately an argument about the source of legitimacy

** Does authority derive from God, from heredity, from the nation, from the revolution itself, from a party, from a constitution, from the ballot box, from a particular religious doctrine? Trace how a society answers this question, and you will understand far more about its trajectory than any account of marches and battles could tell you.

Consider four cases briefly, because I think the contrast is genuinely illuminating.

**England, 1688** — what the English themselves called their “Glorious Revolution” — was not the most violent of revolutions, nor did it seek to remake society from its foundations. 

Its achievement was narrower and, in a sense, more radical: it relocated legitimacy from the person of the king to the constitutional order itself. 

The king would still rule — but not alone, and not above the law.

 It was, I would argue, a revolution *within* the state rather than *against* it, and it may be the single most durable contribution to what we now call constitutional government.

**The American Revolution** asked a different question: not “how do we constrain a king?” but “who has the right to govern us?” 

Its most iconic phrase, “no taxation without representation,” was not really about the tax rate — it was a philosophical claim about the absence of consent. 

This was neither a revolution of the hungry nor of class conflict; it was a revolution of political legitimacy, and its genius lay in what came immediately after independence: the swift construction of institutions — a constitution, a separation of powers — capable of *sustaining* liberty long after the founders themselves had gone.

 Power may be built by a leader; only law builds a state.

**The French Revolution** asked the most radical question of the three: not how to constrain the king, nor merely who should govern, but where legitimacy comes from *at all*.

 Its answer — sovereignty belongs to the nation — rewrote the political vocabulary of the entire world: citizenship, popular sovereignty, the general will, equality before the law. But we should not romanticise it. The revolution that began in the name of liberty descended, within a few short years, into Terror, and then into the rule of Napoleon. 

This was not an accident; it exposed a pattern that would recur again and again: **toppling the old order does not, by itself, answer the much harder question of who now speaks in the revolution’s name.**

 The moment of unity — everyone agreeing on what they reject — is far easier to sustain than the moment of construction, when former allies discover they want fundamentally different futures.

**The Russian Revolution** pushed this danger to its extreme. 

The Bolsheviks were not merely asking who should govern; they believed they possessed the final answer to what the human being itself ought to become. 

Ideology preceded the party, and the party preceded the revolution. 

This is, I think, the deepest lesson of 1917: **the more certain a revolution becomes that it possesses ultimate truth, the less capable it becomes of tolerating disagreement** — because dissent is no longer received as another opinion, but as a threat to the revolution’s very identity.

1. State Strength and Societal Freedom Are Not Opposites

Allow me to challenge a dichotomy I think has done real damage to political thinking in both the West and the developing world: the assumption that a strong state and a free society are somehow in tension — that more of one requires less of the other.

I do not believe this. 

A weak state does not produce more freedom; it tends to produce the collapse of law itself, and the rise of competing centres of power — clan, militia, faction, capital — that fill the vacuum the state has left behind. Citizens do not fear a strong state; they fear a state unconstrained by law.

Equally, a state that maintains order through force alone may look stable for decades — until it doesn’t. 

Force can suppress protest, but it cannot suppress the underlying transformation of society; 

it can postpone the reckoning, but not cancel it. 

Over time, the gap I described earlier widens, and power — once a tool of stability — becomes an obstacle to renewal. 

Rigid states, like dry wood, appear strong, but they are the first to snap. 

Flexible states, like the green branch, bend in the wind — and survive it.

This is why I insist on separating two things too often treated as one: 

**the strength of the state** and **the strength of the ruler**. 

A ruler who concentrates everything in his own hands may appear powerful, but the institutions around him grow weaker with every year of that concentration — they learn to wait rather than to decide, and when that ruler eventually departs, the vacuum he leaves reveals just how hollow the surrounding structures had become. 

A genuinely strong state, by contrast, is one that continues to function competently regardless of who occupies its highest office. Great states are not measured by the greatness of their rulers, but by their capacity to endure after those rulers are gone — which is precisely why I regard the peaceful, regular transfer of power not merely as a democratic value, but as an administrative and civilisational necessity: a mechanism for the state’s own biological renewal.

1. Why Changing the Regime Is Not Enough

I want to turn now to what I consider the most difficult — and most neglected — question in the entire literature on revolutions: 

**why do some societies, after successfully overthrowing their old order, end up reproducing precisely the authoritarianism they rose against?**

A constitution can be rewritten in months. A government can be replaced in days. But a *culture* cannot be replaced at the same speed. 

Citizenship — respect for law, tolerance of disagreement, the belief that authority is a function and not a privilege, that opposition is not treason, that a ruler is a public servant rather than a national father figure — these are not laws. They are habits of mind, and habits of mind take generations to form.

This is why authoritarianism so often survives the authoritarian: it has already embedded itself not only in politics, but in the family, the classroom, the university, the workplace, and even in how we raise our children. A child taught that obedience matters more than understanding grows into an adult who searches for someone to obey, not someone to hold accountable.

 A school that rewards memorisation over inquiry produces citizens who fear questions rather than citizens who generate knowledge.

This is also, I believe, why freedom itself can feel frightening. Freedom is not merely the absence of constraint; it is the burden of choice, and choice is exhausting. 

Some people, quite understandably, prefer the certainty a strongman offers to the anxiety that liberty demands. And so, after a ruler falls, many societies find themselves searching — almost involuntarily — for a new one to take his place, not because they love authoritarianism, but because they fear the vacuum more.

I would go so far as to say that the single most dangerous illusion that follows any revolution is the belief that changing power is sufficient.

 It is not. 

It may, in fact, be the easiest part of the entire process. **The harder task — infinitely harder — is rebuilding the citizen.**

VII. History as a Laboratory: More Than One Path to Change

I want to close the historical portion of this lecture by resisting the idea that revolution, in the French or Russian sense, is the only template for national transformation. It is one template among several.

**China** shows us revolution that rebuilt the state, followed decades later by the state itself undertaking sweeping economic reform without a second revolution — proof that even a revolutionary order may, a generation or two later, be compelled to revisit its own founding assumptions.

**Japan**, during the Meiji era, achieved something that functioned like a revolution in its depth of consequence, without a popular uprising at all — a revolution imposed from above, by a state that understood the world had changed and chose to reform itself before the contradiction became an explosion. 

Perhaps the more useful question is not always “did a revolution occur?” but **”did the state manage to revolutionise itself before society was forced to revolutionise it for them?”**

**India** shows us decolonisation that preserved and repurposed inherited institutions within a new democratic covenant, rather than demolishing everything and starting from zero — a reminder that independence does not end the work; it only begins it, at the much harder question of whether a diverse nation can govern its own differences.

**South Africa** offers, I think, one of the most morally significant cases in modern history: a negotiated transition, led by figures such as Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, that avoided a near-inevitable civil war by treating compromise itself as a revolutionary act.

 Revolution, this case teaches us, does not always mean defeating one’s opponent; sometimes the truly revolutionary act is accepting his continued existence.

**Sudan**, by contrast, illustrates the opposite lesson: repeated uprisings that succeeded in toppling governments but repeatedly failed to build what comes after — a sobering reminder that toppling a ruler may take weeks, while building a state may take generations, and that a revolution unable to convert itself into institutions remains at permanent risk of returning to its starting point, or somewhere worse.

VIII. Egypt: Three Revolutions, Three Different Questions

Allow me, finally, to bring this closer to my own country, because I think Egypt offers a compressed illustration of everything I have argued today.

In less than a century, Egypt experienced three distinct historical moments, each posing a fundamentally different question about legitimacy.

**1919** was, at its core, a *national* revolution. Its question was not how to rebuild the economy or reinterpret religion, but simply: does an Egyptian nation exist with the right to determine its own destiny? It united Muslims and Christians, peasants and intellectuals, men and women, around a single idea — national independence — and the legitimacy it produced belonged to the Egyptian nation itself.

**1952** arose in a different context — a country with a measure of political independence, but still burdened by deep social inequality, weak institutions, and continued occupation of the Suez Canal. The question shifted from “who are we?” to “how do we build a state strong enough to deliver social justice and genuine independence?” 

Its legitimacy derived from state-building itself — real achievements in education, health, industry, and land reform — but its parallel legacy was a narrowing of political space and a weakening of the mechanisms for transferring power, as the state’s legitimacy became increasingly fused with the legitimacy of the revolution itself.

**2011** was different again — leaderless, without a single ideology or organisation, which was simultaneously its greatest strength and its greatest vulnerability. It could unite millions around a rejection of the status quo, but not around a shared vision of what should follow. Its slogan — “bread, freedom, social justice, human dignity” — was a brilliant expression of that breadth, but it was not a governing programme. And so the real struggle began only after the old order fell: not whether change was needed, but **who now had the right to define the revolution and determine the state’s future** — the legitimacy of the ballot box, the legitimacy of the square, the legitimacy of the state, the legitimacy of institutions, the legitimacy of the revolution itself, all competing at once, without the national consensus needed to resolve them quickly.

I would add one further reflection here, offered more tentatively: Egypt’s particular resilience, I suspect, lies not only in its recent history but in the depth of its civilisational memory. The Egyptian state is not a creature of the twentieth century; it is one of the oldest continuous centralised states in human history. Perhaps this is part of why no single ideology — religious or secular — has ever succeeded in permanently capturing the whole of Egyptian society: not because Egyptians are less committed to their convictions, but because that civilisational memory runs deeper than any single project for reshaping identity.

1. Conclusion: From Revolution to a Culture of Renewal

Let me draw these threads together.

I began with a question about timing — does change happen suddenly, or does it only appear sudden? I hope I have persuaded you that the honest answer is the second.

 What we call revolution is very often the visible eruption of a much longer, quieter process: the widening of a gap between a society that never stops changing and a state that has stopped changing with it.

I have argued that poverty and oppression alone do not explain revolution — that rising expectations, followed by disappointment, are frequently more combustible than despair itself.

 I have argued that every revolution, beneath its slogans, is really an argument about where legitimacy comes from — and that the most durable transitions in history are precisely those that succeeded in relocating legitimacy from persons to institutions, and from the revolutionary moment to permanent, revisable rules.

 I have argued that a strong state and a free society are not natural enemies, but natural partners — that the true opposite of freedom is not order, but a state unaccountable to law. 

And I have argued that changing a regime, however necessary, is the easier half of the task; the harder half is cultivating the citizen who can sustain what comes after.

If there is a single idea I would ask you to leave this room with, it is this: 

**the true achievement of a civilisation is not measured by how skilfully it conducts its revolutions, but by how successfully it renders revolution unnecessary** — not by closing the doors to change, but by keeping other doors permanently open: reform, accountability, the peaceful transfer of power, and the capacity to learn, continuously, from one’s own mistakes.

Nature offers no permanent stillness. 

Cells renew themselves; seasons turn; rivers keep their names while their waters are never quite the same water twice. 

Stillness, in biology, is not a sign of life — it is a sign of death.

 I believe the same is largely true of nations. 

They too must continually renew their ideas, their institutions, their leadership, their laws, their methods of education, and their understanding of the human being. 

When that renewal stops, history begins searching for another way to force it — and we call that way, when it finally arrives, a revolution.

I opened this lecture with a question about revolution. I want to close it with something closer to a conviction: that civilisation is not measured by how many revolutions a nation survives, nor by how many rulers fall, but by whether renewal has become a habit, reform a culture, disagreement a source of creativity, and the transfer of power a means of the state’s continuation rather than a threat to its survival. 

A nation that reaches that point has not escaped autumn — autumn remains part of every living cycle — but it has learned, finally, that autumn is not an ending. 

It is only the season in which the tree prepares itself for a new spring.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

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Dr. Hossam Badrawi, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Kasr Al Ainy Faculty of Medicine, was honored by the Egyptian Society of Endoscopic Surgery and Gynecology (ESEGO) during its 5th Annual International Congress, held in Cairo on July 9, 2026. The conference brought together a distinguished group of professors, experts, and specialists in women’s health, obstetrics, gynecology, infertility, and minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Badrawi was recognized during the conference’s Hall of Fame session as the Guest of Honor, in appreciation of his distinguished professional and academic career, as well as his longstanding contributions to medicine, medical education, healthcare development, and public thought.

In addition to receiving this honor, Dr. Badrawi chaired a specialized scientific session entitled “Predictive Perinatal Medicine: Decoding the Biological Clock to Predict and Prevent Preterm Labor.” The session explored the role of artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms in predicting and preventing preterm birth, highlighting the growing potential of data analytics and intelligent technologies to improve pregnancy outcomes, identify risk factors at an early stage, and support clinical decision-making.

Dr. Badrawi’s participation in the congress—both as an honoree and as the chair of a scientific session—reflects the combination of his extensive academic and clinical experience with his continuing interest in future-oriented medical challenges. In particular, it underscores his commitment to exploring the expanding intersection between medicine and artificial intelligence, and to promoting the responsible use of technology to enhance patient care and improve the quality of healthcare.

The ESEGO International Congress is one of the region’s leading scientific meetings in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, infertility, and minimally invasive surgery. It serves as a platform for leading clinicians, researchers, and academics to exchange expertise and discuss the latest scientific and technological advances shaping the future of women’s healthcare.

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The invitation came from Mrs. Susan Dagani, Chair of the School’s Board of Trustees. In introducing him to the graduating students, she emphasized that Dr. Hossam Badrawi’s presence represented a source of inspiration for both the graduates and the entire school community, expressing her appreciation for his acceptance of the invitation to participate in this important occasion.

Mrs. Dagani said:

“Dr. Hossam Badrawi is one of Egypt’s most distinguished figures in the fields of medicine, education, and public thought. He has held numerous academic and public positions and has contributed over several decades to supporting education, human development, and social reform.”

In his speech to the graduates, Dr. Hossam Badrawi shared his vision for the future of young people and emphasized the importance of knowledge and awareness in building both individuals and society, in a celebration that combined academic excellence with human inspiration.

It is worth noting that Modern English School Cairo is considered one of Egypt’s leading international educational institutions and is celebrating this year the graduation of a new class of students from its British, American, and International Baccalaureate programs.

Attached is the link to Dr. Hossam Badrawi’s speech:

Dr. Hossam Badrawi Speech

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Today, Thursday, June 4, 2026, the Civil Education Center in Gezira hosted the Roundtable on Strengthening National Cohesion and Building Public Awareness. The event was organized by the Leaders Foundation for Administrative Sciences and Development, chaired by Dr. Ahmed El-Sherif, as part of the national response to the call launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to strengthen alignment among state institutions and foster unity among national forces in addressing current challenges.

The roundtable coincided with the launch of the national local councils simulation program, “The Road to Local Government – The Local Compass,” and brought together a distinguished group of intellectual, political, executive, and academic leaders, as well as experts and specialists. The objective was to discuss regional and international challenges affecting Egypt’s national security, enhance public awareness, support efforts to build the Egyptian citizen, and reinforce the values of belonging, citizenship, and national participation.

At the invitation of Dr. Ahmed El-Sherif, Dr. Hossam Badrawi chaired the main session. He opened the proceedings with a keynote address focused on the need to move from the stage of discussing ideas to the stage of actual implementation. He emphasized that Egypt’s real challenge is no longer the absence of visions or solutions, but rather the gap between the ideas that are proposed and their practical application on the ground.

Dr. Badrawi stated that national security is a concept far broader than military, political, or economic security in their traditional sense. He explained that national security is “the ability of the state and society to protect their survival, stability, vital interests, and core values, while ensuring the capacity to achieve development and continuity for future generations.”

He stressed that any serious discussion of national security must begin with a clear and agreed-upon definition of the concept, because differing definitions inevitably lead to differing priorities and solutions. He added that national security is closely linked to young people and children, who represent approximately 65% of Egyptian society, emphasizing that discussions about Egypt’s security concern not only the present but also the future of coming generations.

Dr. Badrawi affirmed that education, awareness, healthcare, social protection, and youth empowerment are fundamental pillars of national security. He emphasized that a state that fails to invest in building its people cannot preserve its security and stability in the long term.

Addressing regional and international developments, he noted that the standards of power in the modern world have changed, and that military capabilities alone are no longer sufficient. He explained that the elements of contemporary power now include the ability to build a strong economy, achieve sustainable development, possess advanced technology, actively engage in artificial intelligence applications, and encourage creativity and innovation among young people.

He also addressed the societal dimension of national security, emphasizing that genuine stability depends on a society’s ability to accept diversity, respect differences, and value opposing viewpoints. He warned that the absence of a culture of pluralism and the transformation of differences into hostility and conflict pose a direct threat to social cohesion.

Dr. Badrawi further noted that economic conditions have a direct impact on national security. He explained that a citizen who feels economically insecure or has lost hope is an important indicator that must be considered when assessing national stability. He stressed that the ultimate objective of any economic policy should be to provide citizens with a reasonable level of security, dignity, and well-being.

In concluding his remarks, Dr. Hossam Badrawi called on participants to focus on practical and implementable proposals rather than broad rhetoric. He emphasized that any serious vision must be accompanied by clear performance indicators, monitoring mechanisms, and a defined timeline through which results can be evaluated and ideas transformed into tangible realities.

Following his opening remarks, Dr. Badrawi opened the floor for discussion, inviting attendees to present their views and proposals on strengthening national cohesion and reinforcing public awareness. The dialogue was conducted in an open and constructive atmosphere aimed at producing practical, actionable recommendations to support state institutions and enhance the capacity of Egyptian society to address current and future challenges.

The event was attended by a distinguished group of political, intellectual, academic, and executive leaders, including MP Nagi El-Shehabi, Chairman of the Democratic Generation Party; Dr. Hisham Mostafa Abdel Aziz, Chairman of the Reform and Renaissance Party; and Dr. Mamdouh Abdel Hakim, Chairman of the Egyptian Liberation Party. Also present were numerous members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as former executive, diplomatic, and security officials, university professors, experts, and specialists in the fields of politics, economics, media, and community development.

The gathering also included a number of public figures, representatives of political parties, and members of civil society organizations. The extensive dialogue sought to generate practical visions and implementable proposals for strengthening national cohesion, deepening public awareness, and supporting the foundations of Egyptian national security in the face of current and future challenges.

To watch the full speech delivered by Dr. Hossam Badrawi during the Roundtable on Strengthening National Cohesion and Building Public Awareness, viewers may access the recording through the following link.

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The meeting included:

• Dr. Hossam Badrawi, Chairman of the Nile Badrawi Foundation for Education and Development and Head of the Advisory Committee of Education First Foundation
• Dr. Salma Bakry, President of Education First Foundation
• Dr. Nadia Badrawi, Honorary President of the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE)
• Prof. Alaa Ashmawy, Chairman of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education
• Prof. Asmaa Mostafa, Vice Chairman of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education
• Dr. Mona Ayoub, Director of the Skills and Training Center at the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK) and Advisor to the Minister of Education for the Egyptian-German Schools Initiative
• Dr. Hossam Ezz El-Din, CEO of the American Academy and strategic partner of Prometric and ACT
• Ms. Naglaa Salem, Director of the French Institute in Heliopolis and New Cairo
• Dr. Karim Saeed, French Attaché for University Affairs at the French Embassy
• Mr. Nabil Michel, representative of M.S.A for American Diploma accreditation
• Ms. Azza El-Sherbiny, educational expert
• Mr. Anwar El-Bayni, Regional Administrative Director at Choueifat International Schools
• Dr. Maysaa Barakat, Professor of Educational Leadership at Florida Atlantic University
• Prof. Mahmoud Hamza, CEO of Education First Foundation

A delegation from the American nonprofit organization Sankofa Scholarship Collective also attended, including:

• Dr. Carmen McCallum, Associate Dean of the College of Education at Eastern Michigan University and board member of Sankofa Scholarship Collective
• Rekira Reynolds, Development Director at Sankofa Scholarship Collective
• Dr. Rima, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at Wayne State University and founding board member of Sankofa Scholarship Collective
• Imani Foster, Youth Coordinator at Sankofa Scholarship Collective
• Jordan Peebuck, Youth Coordinator at Sankofa Scholarship Collective

The organization focuses on supporting students and youth of African descent, developing education based on equity and cultural empowerment, and building more inclusive and humane educational environments.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Salma Bakry presented the vision and activities of Education First Foundation in supporting and developing education in Egypt through academic and strategic partnerships with local and international institutions. She also reviewed the foundation’s programs for teacher and leadership development, support for gifted students, organization of educational forums and competitions, support for educational quality and technical education, and strengthening cooperation between civil society and government institutions to build a more efficient and sustainable educational system.

On the other hand, Sankofa Scholarship Collective presented its philosophy of empowering youth and building new community leadership through education and cultural and economic awareness. The organization highlighted its support programs for youth, especially the “Financial Freedom Lab,” aimed at developing financial literacy, leadership, community engagement, and self-confidence among participants.

The presentation also explained that the organization’s leadership model is based on five main pillars: cultural identity, critical awareness, financial literacy, teamwork, and psychological and social support, all with the aim of preparing young people capable of creating positive impact within their communities.

The presentation further emphasized the importance of giving youth a genuine role in decision-making within educational institutions and encouraging schools to build more humane and inclusive learning environments based on listening to students and nurturing their intellectual and social capacities.

The organization also shared testimonials and real-life experiences from participating youth, who confirmed that the programs helped them discover themselves, develop their skills, and feel empowered to shape their futures with greater awareness and confidence.

Dr. Badrawi then delivered a speech reviewing the efforts he made during his time in parliament and his long struggle to establish the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Egypt. This stemmed from his conviction that Egypt’s educational crisis was not merely a matter of curricula or funding, but rather the absence of genuine standards for quality, accountability, and objective evaluation. Educational institutions, he explained, had operated for many years without independent mechanisms capable of measuring performance efficiency or educational outcomes. He therefore believed in the necessity of an institutional body capable of guaranteeing quality and accrediting educational institutions independently from the service providers themselves.

Dr. Badrawi further explained that quality in education is not an administrative luxury, but a comprehensive culture aimed at building individuals capable of thinking, creativity, and competitiveness. Therefore, he viewed the existence of an independent quality assurance authority as a safeguard protecting the educational process from randomness and from policy shifts caused by changing ministers or administrations.

He also linked quality with independence, arguing that the financial independence of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Authority is essential for expanding its activities and accelerating accreditation for educational institutions at all levels. He explained that this requires allocating part of the state budget to the authority instead of continuing to treat it as a self-financing economic body. He warned that many educational institutions are unable to bear accreditation costs, which could discourage them from seeking accreditation and significantly slow down the authority’s mission of accrediting all educational institutions.

Dr. Badrawi also emphasized that granting universities and schools greater autonomy, while maintaining clear systems of evaluation and accountability, is the real path toward improving performance and efficiency.

He noted that educational quality should not be measured merely by pass rates or memorization, but by the educational system’s ability to graduate individuals who possess:

• Critical thinking skills
• The ability for lifelong learning
• Respect for diversity
• The ability to work collaboratively
• A strong connection to labor market needs and the demands of the modern era

From this perspective, Dr. Badrawi viewed the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation not merely as a regulatory institution, but as part of a broader national project aimed at rebuilding the Egyptian individual and linking education to development, the economy, and social awareness in a way that guarantees sustainable educational reform beyond temporary or seasonal solutions.

At the conclusion of the meeting, extensive discussions took place among academics, experts, and stakeholders regarding the major challenges facing institutional accreditation and educational reform in Egypt, as well as mechanisms for strengthening educational quality and linking it to institutional evaluation and accreditation standards.

The meeting concluded with several important recommendations, most notably the necessity of linking the renewal of licenses for national schools to obtaining accreditation from the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education. This was viewed as a real incentive to accelerate the accreditation of more than 8,000 schools within a relatively short timeframe, thereby improving educational quality in a sustainable and institutional manner.

Participants also stressed the importance of coordinating a meeting with the Minister of Education and Technical Education to present the proposals discussed during the seminar and explore ways of bringing different stakeholders closer together in support of a practical and implementable vision for developing Egyptian education and improving the quality of its outcomes.

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