The Atlantic Partnership and Middle Eastern Strategy in the Early Cold War
Abstract
In the mid-1950s, serious Middle Eastern challenges temporarily crippled the Atlantic partnership. In many ways, the 1956 Suez Crisis merely illuminated adverse alliance trends, the most fundamental of which fall into two categories. First, Britain and the United States pursued separate regional strategies. Cold War considerations served as the lodestar by which United States leaders conducted foreign relations. Containing Soviet expansion in any form underpinned American strategic decisions. British objectives entailed additional complexity. In its role as a key Free World state, Britain, like the United States, opposed Communist opportunism. But in Southwest Asia, other factors also influenced British strategy. Foremost among these was a desire to protect what I term the Hashemite-Gulf Arch, a decades-old arrangement of military and economic privileges linking Britain with Iraq, Jordan, and the Gulf sheikhdoms. British dependence on preferential access to Middle Eastern oil made this system a vital national interest. Consequently, London countered any antagonists, Communist or otherwise, threatening the Arch. Problems arose when apparent danger from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Arab nationalism compelled Britain to confront those actors precisely while American leaders strove to forestall their alignment with Moscow. Since Britain and the United States disagreed regarding which objective sustaining containment, or the Hashemite-Gulf Arch enjoyed primacy, confusion ensued. Second, mistrust and faulty alliance communication hindered efforts to bridge strategic differences. Anglo-American leaders all too frequently succumbed to expediency, choosing unilateralism rather than pursuing a time-consuming and difficult search for common ground. Anthony Eden's secret decisions for military operations against Saudi Arabia in 1953 and 1955 are testament to this phenomenon.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 22, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA381603
Entities
People
- Derek D. Varble
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology