Arab Cold War: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox military conflict

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| place = [[Arab world]]

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*{{flag|North Yemen}} ([[North Yemen Civil War|1962–1970]])

*{{flag|Mauritania|1959}} (until [[1984 Mauritanian coup d'état|1984]])

*{{flagdeco|SADR}} [[Polisario Front]] / [[Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]]

*{{flagdeco|Somalia}} [[Somali Democratic Republic|Somalia]] ([[1969 Somali coup d'état|1969]]–[[Ogaden War|1977]])

*{{flagicon image|Flag of the Ba'ath Party.svg}} [[Ba'ath Party]] (until 1966)

*{{nowrap|{{flagicon image|Flag of the Dhofar Liberation Front.svg}} [[Dhofar Liberation Front|DLF]]<ref name="Omancountrystudies">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/persian-gulf-states/62.htm|title=The Dhofar Rebellion|website=countrystudies.us|access-date=5 May 2016|archive-date=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409032203/http://countrystudies.us/persian-gulf-states/62.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>([[Dhofar Rebellion|1963–1968]])}}

| combatant1a = ''Supported by'':{{plainlist|

*{{flag|Soviet Union}} (until 1989)

*{{flag|Democratic Republic of Afghanistan}} (from [[Saur Revolution|1978]])

*{{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria|name=Bulgaria}} (until 1989)

*{{flagicon image|Flag of Egypt (1972–1984).svg|link=History of Egypt under Anwar Sadat#Domestic policy and the Infitah}}{{flagicon image|Flag of Egypt.svg|link=History of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak#Politics}} [[Egypt|Arab Republic of Egypt]] (since 1974)

*{{flagdeco|Syria|1932}} [[Second Syrian Republic|Syria]] (before [[1954 Syrian coup d'état|1954]], [[1961 Syrian coup d'état|1961]]–[[1963 Syrian coup d'état|1963]])

*{{flag|Kingdom of Libya|name=Libya}} (until [[1969 Libyan coup d'état|1969]])

*{{flagicon|South Arabia}} [[Federation of the Emirates of the South]] / [[Federation of South Arabia]] (until [[Aden Emergency|1967]])

*{{flag|Trucial States}} (until 1971)

*{{flag|United Arab Emirates}} (from 1971)

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{{flag|Arab Federation}} (1958)

*{{flagicon|South Yemen}} [[Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi]]

*{{flagicon|South Yemen}} [[Abdul Fattah Ismail]]

*{{flagicon|South Yemen}} [[Ali Nasir Muhammad]]

| commander2 = {{plainlist|

*{{flagicon|Saudi Arabia}} [[Faisal of Saudi Arabia|King Faisal]]

*{{flagicon|Jordan}} [[Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]]

*{{flagicon|Kuwait}} [[Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah|Emir Jaber]]

*{{flagicon|Oman|1970}} [[Qaboos bin Said|Sultan Qaboos]]

{{Campaignbox Arab Cold War}}

{{Life in the Arab League}}

 

 

 

The term "Arab Cold War" was first used by [[Malcolm H. Kerr]], an [[United States|American]] [[political science|political scientist]] and [[Middle East]] scholar, in his 1965 book of the same name and subsequent editions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000609172134/http://www.aub.edu.lb/themes/1999/Kerr/writings.html Writings by Malcolm H. Kerr]

*''The Arab Cold War: Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir and His Rivals, 1958–1970'', 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.</ref> Despite its name, the Arab Cold War was not a conflict between [[Capitalism|capitalist]] and [[Communism|communist]] economic systems. In fact, all Arab governments, with the exception of the Marxist government of [[South Yemen]], explicitly rejected communism and banned the activities of communist activists within their territories. Moreover, the Arab states did not seek membership of either [[NATO]] or the [[Warsaw Pact]], as the vast majority of them belonged to the [[Non-Aligned Movement]].

 

 

The Arab Cold War is thought to have ended in the late 1970s as a result of several factors. The success of the State of Israel in the [[Six-Day War]] of 1967 undermined the strategic strength of both Egypt and Nasser. The resolution of the North Yemen Civil War, although brokered by Nasser and [[Faisal of Saudi Arabia|King Faisal]] of Saudi Arabia, was a victory for the Egyptian-backed Yemeni Republicans. The intense Egyptian-Saudi rivalry faded dramatically as attention focused on [[War of Attrition|Egypt's efforts to liberate its own territory]] under Israeli occupation.

 

 

== Background ==

{{further|Arab–Israeli conflict}}

 

 

== History ==

{{Expand section|date=March 2015}}

{{further|History of Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser|Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict|Israel–Saudi Arabia relations|Pan-Arabism|Six-Day War|War of Attrition}}

 

Nasser used various political tools to increase his visibility in the Arab world. These included radio programs such as Voice of the Arabs and the use of politically active Egyptian professionals, often teachers.

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By the end of the 1960s, Nasser's prestige had declined due to the political failure of the [[United Arab Republic|union between Egypt and Syria]], military setbacks in Yemen, where the civil war reached a [[North Yemen Civil War#Stalemate|stalemate]] despite his commitment of thousands of troops to overthrow the monarchists, and especially against Israel, where Egypt lost the [[Sinai Peninsula]] and suffered the loss of 10,000 to 15,000 troops in the [[Six-Day War]]. In late 1967, Egyptian President Nasser and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal signed a treaty. According to the treaty, Nasser would withdraw the 20,000 Egyptian troops from Yemen, Faisal would stop sending arms to the Yemeni royalists, and three neutral Arab states would send observers.<ref name=beginningto>{{Cite magazine|issn=0040-781X|title=Beginning to Face Defeat|magazine=Time|access-date=August 26, 2008|date=1967-09-08|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899762-2,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105235238/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899762-2,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2012}}</ref>

{{further|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism|Petro-Islam|Salafi movement|Grand Mosque seizure}}

 

 

[[File:Oil revenues by oil exporting country.jpg|thumb|300px|[[List of countries by oil production|Petroleum products]] revenue in billions of dollars per annum for five major Arab petroleum exporting countries. Saudi Arabian production <br><small>Years were chosen to show payment for before (1973) and after (1974) the [[Yom Kippur War|October 1973 War]], after the [[Iranian Revolution]] (1978-1979), and during the market turnaround in 1986.<ref>source: Ian Skeet, ''OPEC: Twenty-Five Years of Prices and Politics'' (Cambridge: University Press, 1988)</ref> [[Iran]] and [[Iraq]] are excluded because their revenue fluctuated due to the revolution and the [[Iran–Iraq War|war between them]].</small><ref name=GKJTPI2002:75>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.75</ref>]]

The Islamic revival strengthened throughout the Arab world, especially after the [[Six-Day War|Six-day War]]. After Nasser's death in 1970, his successor [[Anwar Sadat]] shifted the focus to religion and economic liberalization, away from Arab nationalism and socialism. Egypt's military slogan "Land, Sea and Air" was replaced by the Islamic battle cry of [[Takbir|''Allahu Akbar'']] in the perceived "shattering" defeat in the [[Yom Kippur War]].<ref>Murphy, Caryle, ''Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience'', (Simon and Schuster, 2002, p.31)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Robin |author-link=Robin Wright (author) |orig-year=1985 |year=2001 |title=Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnSsF-hADhUC&pg=PA64 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |pages=64–67 |isbn=0-7432-3342-5}}</ref> Although the October 1973 war was launched by Egypt and [[Syria]] to recover land captured by [[Israel]] in 1967, according to [[French people|French]] [[political scientist]] [[Gilles Kepel]], the "real victors" of the war were the Arab "oil-exporting countries". Their [[1973 oil crisis#Arab oil embargo|embargo]] on Israel's Western allies helped the US to pressure Israel to limit its counter-offensive.<ref name="Kepel">{{cite book |last=Kepel |first=Gilles |author-link=Gilles Kepel |year=2003 |title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=petro-Islam&pg=PA61 |isbn=9781845112578 |quote=The war of October 1973 was started by Egypt with the aim of avenging the humiliation of 1967 and restoring the lost legitimacy of the two states' ... [Egypt and Syria] emerged with a symbolic victory ... [but] the real victors in this war were the oil-exporting countries, above all Saudi Arabia. In addition to the embargo's political success, it reduced the world oil supply and sent the price per barrel soaring. In the aftermath of the war, the oil states abruptly found themselves with revenues gigantic enough to assure them a clear position of dominance within the Muslim world.}}</ref> The political success of the embargo enhanced the prestige of those who imposed it. In addition, the reduction in global oil supply caused the price of oil to rise from US$3 to almost $12 a barrel,<ref>{{Cite news |title=The price of oil – in context |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609145246/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2007 |work=CBC News}}</ref> increasing the revenues of oil exporters. This gave the Arab oil-exporting states a dominant position within the Muslim world,<ref name="Kepel"/> with Saudi Arabia by far the largest exporter (see bar chart above).<ref name="Kepel"/>

 

 

== Conflicts of the Arab Cold War ==

* [[1991 Iraqi uprisings|Iraqi uprisings (1991)]]

* [[Algerian Civil War|Algerian Civil War (1991–2002)]]

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[[Category:1960s conflicts]]

[[Category:1970s conflicts]]

[[Category:Arab nationalism]]

[[Category:Cold War conflicts]]

[[Category:Egypt–Jordan relations]]

[[Category:Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations]]

[[Category:Iraq–Saudi Arabia relations]]

[[Category:Iraq–Jordan relations]]