Title: How did the Cold War affect the Middle East?
Headings: How did the Cold War affect the Middle East?
How did the Cold War affect the Middle East?
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Content: This would pose a threat to neighbouring Israel who was the military strength in the region while Egypt was politically dominant. In this way, the Cold War significantly impacted the region as a nuclear conflict between the superpowers in the Middle East was avoided. Nevertheless, while the superpowers were trying to outmanoeuvre each other, they still had to take into consideration the interests of local agents such as Nasser due to the nature of the Cold War, reinforcing the idea that local agents shape outcomes to an even greater degree than the superpowers. The success of the Soviet Union in the region, following the Suez war, was partly due to the West persistently trying to understand regional dynamics through an essentially Cold War prism (Sayigh, Shlaim 2003, p.33). The US assumed that the power vacuum left by the imperial powers could only be filled by either the United States themselves or the Soviet Union. They disregarded the importance of powerful local actors in the region such as Nasser who’s influence as a political leader extended far beyond Egypt’s borders. This disposition framed the Eisenhower doctrine which aimed to provide military assistance to any country that was battling communism. Nasser perceived this doctrine as imperialism by other means and a disguise for the Western powers to become involved in the affairs of Arab states. The suspicion generated from this ‘accelerated the drive to attain Soviet assistance and to encourage a Soviet presence, in order to stop this new imperialism’ (Sayigh, Shlaim 2003, p.33). Inevitably, radical Arab nationalism had become identified in the US minds with international communism (Yapp 1991, p.415).