Looking for more ways to connect GW with the civil unrest in Egypt? Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received an honorary degree from the University in 1999.

The president – who announced Tuesday afternoon he would not seek reelection in September – said in 1999 that GW and Egypt share a commitment to a brighter future. Mubarak was speaking  at a convocation in his honor during Colonial Inauguration.

“For many years, your institution has been dedicated to the shaping of minds, the building of character through knowledge, through study and the pursuit of truth. In this you have contributed to building a better world,” Mubarak said as he accepted a honorary doctorate of laws.

Former president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg welcomed Mubarak to the University and lauded the then 18-year president for his peacekeeping tactics.

“In the grand sweep of the twentieth century, only a very few men have ever been given the chance to shape the course of events; fewer still are known as peacemakers,” Trachtenberg said in prepared remarks before the ceremony. “You, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, addressed destiny as one of the pre-eminent figures in the contemporary story of the Arab Republic of Egypt, a role that history gave you and that you filled with compassion, courage and grace.”

Mubarak has been president of Egypt since 1981, when he succeeded the late Anwar El-Sadat.