The impact of the cold war on US policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict

Vitalii Buzan, Ph.D. in History, Lecturer, NTUU «KPI», Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract

The article considers U.S. policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict during the Cold War. Special attention is paid to research the impact of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union on U.S. Middle East policy-making process. The article provides the information on debates and differences of opinion about U. S. policy toward Arab-Israeli conflict within American political and scientific circles. 

During Cold War years the Arab-Israeli conflict was entangled in the global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. American leaders feared that the Arab-Israeli conflict could get out of hand and precipitate a Superpower conflict. The USA were interested in Superpower non-involvement in Arab-Israeli conflict and tried to avoid direct military confrontation with USSR in the Middle East. The United States was actively involved in the Middle East peace settlement, played a vital role in reaching disengagement agreements and peace accords.

The United States concentrated on a partial or an interim settlement and supported a process of step-by-step bilateral negotiations. The U.S. tried to exclude the Soviet Union from settlement of Arab-Israeli conflict and reduce of Soviet influence in the Middle East. The USA occasionally tried to reach consensus with the USSR on the general outline of a settlement between Arabs and Israel and issued joint statements on Middle East.

American conservative policy makers and analysts viewed the Arab-Israeli conflict through the prism of Cold War. In their point of view, the Soviet Union used the Arab-Israeli conflict as a means of penetrating in the Middle East, enhancing Soviet and reducing American influence in the region. Liberal policy makers and authors supported balanced and even-handed approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict and advised to resolve Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestine problem.

Keywords
the USA, the USSR, the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict

Full text
PDF

References

  1. GONCHAR B.M. (1991) K voprosu o roli arabo-izrail’skogo konflikta v podhodah SShA k otnoshenijam s SSSR (70-80-e gody). In Proceeding of Dinamika arabo-izrail’skogo konflikta international conference. Nizhnij Novgorod: Izdatel’stvo Nizhegorodskogo universiteta. pp. 60-68.
  2. ATHERTON A. (1984) Arabs, Israelis and Americans: A Reconsideration. Foreign Affairs. Vol.62. No.5. pp. 1194-1209.
  3. BRZEZINSKI Z. (1983) Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977-1981. New-York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.
  4. (1969) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945. The Near East and Africa. Vol. VIII. Washington: G.P.O.
  5. (1948) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947. The Near East and Africa. Vol. V. Washington: G.P.O.
  6. (1956) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957. Vol. XVI: Suez Crisis, July 26–December 31, 1956. Washington: G.P.O.
  7. (2004) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968. Vol. XIX: Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967. Washington: G.P.O.
  8. (2008) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976. Vol. XXIV: Middle East Region and Arabian Peninsula, 1969–72, Jordan, September 1970. Washington: G.P.O.
  9. HAHN P. (2004) Caught in the Middle East: U.S. Policy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1945–1961. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  10. KISSINGER H. (2003) Crisis: the Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises. New-York: Simon & Schuster.
  11. KISSINGER H. (1979) White House Years. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
  12. KISSINGER H. (2011) Years of Upheaval. New-York: Simon & Schuster.
  13. OREN M. (2002) Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  14. QUANDT W. (2001) Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967. Washington: Brookings Institution Press.
  15. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (1947) The Consequences of the Partition of Palestine, ORE 55, November 28, 1947. [Online]. Avaliable from: http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000256628.pdf
  16. LUKACS YE. (1992) The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. A Documentary Record, 1967-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  17. (1970) The Near East conflict. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Near East of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives Ninety-first Congress, second session, July 21-30, 1970. Washington: G.P.O.
  18. VANCE C. (1983) Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Policy. New-York: Simon and Schuster.

DOI http://doi.org/10.17721/2521-1706.2016.02.99-106