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: As Egypt was their closest ally they would be able to consolidate that power and strengthen their political and military influence in the region. The last and arguably the most important benefit is rooted in the United States refusal to collude with the Soviet’s. Khrushchev wanted to manipulate their refusal and interpret it to the Arab leaders as indirect approval of the trilateral aggression against Egypt (Smolansky 1965, p.594). This would then be contrasted with the willingness of the Soviet’s to support and defend the sovereignty and nationalism of Egypt and by extension all Arab states that sought protection from imperialism (Smolansky 1965, p.594). Khrushchev hoped that his anti-imperialist rhetoric would turn Arab leaders away from the West and towards the Soviet Union for political, economic and military assistance. The impact of this initiative was relatively successful. Revolutionary and nationalist states such as Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and south Yemen were all, at some point aligned with the USSR (Halliday 1997, p.15). However, these alliances did not guarantee Soviet control over the domestic politics of these nations or their foreign policy therefore the impact of the Cold War on the region was limited in this sense as local actors had a greater role in determining the development of the region than the superpowers (Halliday 1997, p.15). During times when Egyptian and Soviet interests were out of sync it would create friction between the external actor and the local agent because Nasser pursued his own interests in spite of Cold War politics. The willingness of the Soviet Union to use force to end the Suez war requires further analysis as it can strongly be argued that this was the decisive factor in ending the war.