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Definition of Realism
The West
- After witnessing pre and post independence from the West
he fears their takeover/influence of control = reduce own and
affect alliances he would want to make, so through use of
military intimidation and competition of control he was able to
make these alliances and use them as a form self security
External sovereignty/National security
- Sovereign takeover & influence means pan-Arabism cannot
be exerted and therefore he would resort to balancing
alliances to keep control
Revisionist policies by regional rivals
- Isolation means little influence to impact upon the Arab
states, Egypt had to be key influence by military and political
means, geographic influence
Israel
- Military threat, Western threat, common enemy abused,
limited cooperation led to anarchy and self help/interests
Both interventions in Kuwait and Yemen I see as quite similar and for
similar reasons. Both were threats of sov takeover however slightly
ironic that S.A. was an ally in Kuwait but not in Yemen, which could
show the lack of ideological compassion and more for a competition
of power and influence
Arab League in Kuwait: Saudi, Jordan and Egypt send troops as
following their Arab League credential to protect independence and
Sov of Kuwait from Iraq
Constructivist:
A necessity of maintaining ideological purity whilst he was in
the for front of regional alliances
Challenging radical and conservative govs
Realist:
Unlikely allies showed a willingness to act together when their
interests were threatened.
Wanted to isolate Iraq and use military force to intimidate
Egypt & Yemen Republic: Part of Egypts campaign against Arab
reaction, Egypt intervenes to aid Yemeni revolutionaries fighting
against the royalist forces of Saudi
Constructivist:
His decision to support the RCC had little to do with military
politics and everything to do with symbolic politics.
He was the leader of Arab nationalism and therefore could not
reject the request for aid from RCC.
It was to recover his prestige after failure of UAR
Realist:
Military threat from North and tribal forces.
Chance to gain foothold in Arab peninsular.
Basically isolated by 1962 Syria and Iraq tried to enhance own
pan-Arabist credentials by negotiating a military and political
agreement
Jordan and S.A. took an offensive stance at him within the
Arab League. Wanted to threaten those forces so as to make
them bandwagon him
Realists:
The aid and help given only spurred Jordan and Egypt on to
recover lost land and suppress the PLO threat not towards
harassing conservative states.
Making sure everybody knew they were the most powerful
and not the PLO.
Realpolitik over ideology a commitment to the status quo
rather than the revolution
Khartoum conference Nasser dropped his ideology and was
prepared to cooperate with all Arab states as equal and
becoming Israeli centered.
Eastern Command: Nasser heavily prods Syria, Iraq and Jordan to
join forces and aid Egypt during the War of Attrition. Level of
cooperation is limited
Conclusion
Weakness of ideological factors as a cause of effective Arab
alliances. Although conservative and revolutionary regimes occur
side by side (Yemen) the progressive states were just as hostile to
each other (Egypt v Syria) and ready to cooperate with the forces of
Arab reaction when needed (summit talks)
Was as much as a source for division as it was a basis for
cooperation = collapse of UAR and Tri Unity agreement