Ali Eldin Helal
Professor of Political Sciences, Cairo University, Member of the Shoura Council and Member of the General Secretariat of the National Democratic Party, responsible for the Media. He chairs the Political Science Committee of the Supreme Council of Culture, member of the board of Directors, the National Center for Social Studies and editor in chief of the quarterly journal Al Nahda (Renaissance). He served as Egypt’s Minister of Youth (1999-2004), Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University (1993-1999), Secretary general of the Supreme Council of Universities (1992-1996, and Director of the Center of Political Studies and Research at Cairo University (1986-1993). He was elected as President of the Arab Association of Political Science (2004-2007). He was a member of: the UN Special Experts Group on Disarmament and Development (1979-1980), the ACLS/SSRC committee on the comparative study of Moslem Societies (1988-1991), Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies , IISS (London) for nine years (1983-1992) the UN Expert group on the Economic Aspects of Disarmament and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDER) (1991-1992). He was a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, Calgary Univ., Univ. of California at Los Angeles, and Princeton Univ. He served on the editorial board of many academic journals including the International Journal of the Middle East Studies (1981-1986) , Cairo papers in Social Science (1978-1992) , and Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (1993-1996). He published extensively in Arabic and English on issues related to political development and social change in the Arab world. His publications in English include: Islam and Power, Egypt and the great powers, Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World, The future of the Arab Nation, Egypt’s Economic Potential, and Foreign Policies of the Arab States. Professor Helal has been active in the public life of Egypt and the Arab world. He was a member of Egypt’s delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference (October 1991) and to the Moscow Multilateral negotiations on the Middle East (January1993). He is a founder and the first vice president of the Egyptian Association of Human rights (1985-1987). He is a member of the Arab Reform Forum organized by the Library of Alexandria. Prof. Helal Received Egypt’s State Medal of the first order for Science and Arts for the best book in political science in 1979.