As part of the efforts of the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Business Technology at the University, in order to open cooperative paths with research and study centers, under the patronage of Professor Dr. Al-Tahera Al-Sayed Hameyah, Dean of the Faculty, and the supervision of Dr. Ahmed Al-Basousy, a Lecturer at the faculty’s Department of Political Science, a delegation from the faculty students paid a visit to Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. An educational symposium was organized by the center for the delegation on the nature of the work of the research centers at large, and Al-Ahram Center in particular, in the presence of Dr. Dina Shehata, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, and Dr. Amal Mokhtar, an expert in extremism and violence issues, Editor-in-chief of the Global Scene on Extremism and Terrorism Magazine, at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Basousy opened the meeting by introducing the audience to the Egyptian Russian University (ERU) and its establishment, and the scientific departments in the Faculty of Management, Economics and Business Technology. Then he moved on to introduce the Department of Political Science and Digital Political Science and the role of the Faculty in developing the skills of its students to keep pace with the labor market and learn about its nature. The visit came as part of the activities of the faculty in order to learn about Al-Ahram Center as the most important and oldest center in Egypt.
Then Dr. Dina Shehata – an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies – was given the floor. She started her speech by welcoming the delegation members and thanking them for selecting Al-Ahram Center. She expressed how happy she was with this meeting with promising university youth. Then she began by giving a brief about Al-Ahram Center and its establishment. The center started in 1968 as a unit for special studies on issues which related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, then the scope of its research expanded over time; so it became a center specializing in international issues with a focus on issues and events of concern to the Arab world, and eventually it has now reached the point of being the oldest research institution in the Arab World.
Dr. Amal Mokhtar – an expert in extremism and violence affairs and Editor-in-chief of the Global Scene on Extremism and Terrorism Magazine – was then given the floor. She began her speech by defining the role of research and expertise centers in the world and explaining how they influence public policy making and their role in supporting decision makers in critical moments. She elaborated on this role by highlighting examples from the center’s history on some issues, such as the Second Gulf War, in addition to the current media and research coverage of the war in Palestine. Then she moved on to a presentation of the center’s most important publications and the nature of these publications, i.e. annual reports such as the Arab Strategic Report, the Economic Trends Report, and finally the Guide to Islamic Movements, in addition to monthly publications such as the Strategic File, Strategic Pamphlets, the Egyptian File, and Egyptian Visions, and quarterly publications such as the Egyptian Affairs Magazine, the Democracy Magazine, and the International Politics Magazine.
At the end of the visit, the students expressed their pleasure and the benefits which they got from this visit, hoping for more fruitful cooperation.