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The President of Republic is elected indirectly in a two-stage system unique to Egypt. The People’s Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, nominates one of a number of candidates for presidency. The presidential candidate requires at least a two-thirds majority in the People’s Assembly in order to proceed to the second stage of the elections. The presidential candidate is voted on in a yes-or-no binding public referendum. On acheiving a simple majority in the public referendum, the presidential candidate is sworn in as President. However, if the candidate fails to obtain the required majority, the People’s Assembly nominates a new candidate for presidency, thus returning to the first stage of elections. The President may be re-elected multiple times with no limitation on the number of terms allowed to be served.

Egypt is a key partner in the search for peace in the Middle East and resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then President of Egypt Anwar Sadat's groundbreaking trip to Israel in 1977, the 1978 Camp David Accords, and the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty represented a fundamental shift in the politics of the region; from a strategy of confrontation to one of peace as a strategic choice. Egypt was subsequently ostracized by other Arab states and ejected from the Arab League from 1979 to 1989.

Like African music, Arabic and Egyptian music has strong improvisatory and rhythmic components. The base rhythm of Arabic music is the maqamat, which is formed by dum (downbeats), tak (upbeats) and rests. Arabic music uses microtones, or notes not present in the formal musical scale (half-flats and half-sharps). Arabic tones are divided into thirds, which makes their sound inherently different from most other musical traditions.

Export of petroleum and related products amounted to $2.6 billion in the year 2000. In late 2001, Egypt's benchmark "Suez Blend" was about $16.73 per barrel ($105/m³), the lowest price since 1999.

The League of Arab States headquarters is in Cairo. The Secretary General of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League.

Egypt's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Pharaonic Egypt was for so long an independent and self-contained state. Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule; however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,300 years Egypt was governed by foreigners: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and British. When President Nasser (President 1954-1970) once said that he was the first native Egyptian to exercise sovereign power in Egypt since the last Pharaoh, Nectanebo II, was deposed by the Persians in 343 BC, he was only slightly exaggerating.