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2. United States Diplomacy and the 1973 War
- Author:
- Daniel C. Kurtzer
- Publication Date:
- 09-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cairo Review of Global Affairs
- Institution:
- School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
- Abstract:
- The 1973 Arab-Israeli War ushered in a period of active American diplomacy that contributed to two Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreements, one Syrian-Israeli disengagement agreement, and, several years later, the Camp David Accords and the Egypt-Israel Treaty of Peace. The successes of the American efforts masked a number of significant weaknesses in concept, strategy, and tactics that would plague U.S. diplomacy in the decades that followed. The story of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be told through “before and after” narratives of critical inflection points. The period after World War I—which witnessed the adoption of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine—was unlike anything that preceded the Great War. The period after the 1948 war—Israel’s war of independence and Palestine’s nakba—upturned history and took the central characters of that era in an entirely different direction from what preceded. The same can be said for the June 1967 war.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, History, Henry Kissinger, Israeli–Palestinian Conflict, 1973 War, and 1967 War
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Arab Countries, Egypt, and United States of America
3. Israel and the United States Did Not See the 1973 War Coming
- Author:
- Zaki Shalom
- Publication Date:
- 09-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cairo Review of Global Affairs
- Institution:
- School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
- Abstract:
- Israel’s mistaken pre-war assumptions about the 1973 War caused it to fail to foresee the potential outbreak of a war with Egypt and Syria. What were these calculations based on and why did the United States follow suit? In early October 1973, Israeli intelligence agencies began to receive information regarding Egypt’s (and Syria’s) intention to launch a war against Israel in the coming days. The timing of the expected offensive was not yet known. Only in the early morning of October 6, 1973, would a highly reliable intelligence agent of the Mossad inform Israeli authorities that war would begin in the late afternoon hours. The exact time was not mentioned, but for one reason or another the Israelis believed the Egyptian military offensive would begin at 6:00 pm. Concurrently, Egypt began to deploy massive military power along the Suez Canal, very close to Israel’s military forces on the other side of the canal. The war broke out at 2:00 pm—four hours before the expected time.
- Topic:
- Intelligence, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Armed Conflict, Military, and 1973 War
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Syria, Egypt, and United States of America
4. Shifting Tides: Egypt’s Unexpected Path After the 1973 War
- Author:
- Ali E. Hillal Dessouki
- Publication Date:
- 09-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cairo Review of Global Affairs
- Institution:
- School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
- Abstract:
- When the war erupted at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on October 6, 1973, I had working for the Center for Political and Strategic Studies at Al-Ahram for the past few months. Earlier in August 1973, I had returned to Egypt after seven years of completing my graduate studies at McGill University in Canada. Soon after, I was appointed as an assistant professor of political science at Cairo University and joined the Al-Ahram Center. The center’s main job to was to monitor the domestic politics of Israel. It was supported by Mohamed Hassanein Haykal, editor of Al-Ahram and a confidante of President Nasser, and directed by Hatem Sadek, Nasser’s son-in-law. It included a group of senior researchers comprising a number of sophisticated social scientists, retired ambassadors, and policy analysts. The senior researchers used to meet on a weekly basis, and by late September, they met daily to discuss the development of events in the Middle East. All of us were at hand and the center was charged with writing daily position papers prepared specially for the president. For the following three weeks, I was commissioned to write the daily political commentary directed toward Israel, which was aired on Egyptian radio. War is a momentous event in history. It can be a catalyst for societal changes, a source of new ideas, and an impetus for replacement and transformation. War is also closely associated with the process of state formation and the development of national pride and patriotism. Moreover, the balance of power between states is impacted by war, and great wars produce new international institutions and systems.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, History, Pragmatism, 1973 War, and Anwar Sadat
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, North Africa, and Egypt
5. The 1973 October War and the Soviet Union
- Author:
- Vitaly Naumkin and Vasily Kuznetsov
- Publication Date:
- 09-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cairo Review of Global Affairs
- Institution:
- School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
- Abstract:
- The fourth consecutive Arab-Israeli conflict in 1973, called the Day of Atonement War or the October War, shook the Middle East in the second half of the last century. It was an exceedingly unusual war in many ways. First, the key role in the Arab coalition was played by Egypt. Second, unprecedented success was achieved by the Arabs—although temporarily and on a limited scale—which had a noticeable impact on the situation in the Middle East conflict zone. Third, Arab attacks against Israeli troops were mounted for the first time with no involvement of external actors. Lastly, the conflict came to a halt unexpectedly, leaving observers with the impression of a well-orchestrated performance. This conflict was also discordant with the “zero-sum game” paradigm that had underlain all previous Arab-Israeli wars. This time, the conflict occurred against the backdrop of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s U-turn toward the United States shortly before the war and followed a decision made by Soviet leaders to withdraw their military specialists from Egypt. Another unusual aspect of this conflict was that Moscow formally learned about the war only after it began. Even more puzzling was that Moscow nevertheless continued to provide military assistance to the Egyptians.
- Topic:
- History, Soviet Union, 1973 War, and Anwar Sadat
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Soviet Union, North Africa, and Egypt
6. Miscalculations and Legacies: A Look Back at the 1973 War Half a Century On
- Author:
- David Makovsky
- Publication Date:
- 09-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cairo Review of Global Affairs
- Institution:
- School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
- Abstract:
- The October 1973 War is bound to continue to fascinate historians and many others for a long time to come. There are countless dimensions to the last of the Arab-Israeli interstate wars. The obvious military aspects of the war alone are worth thousands of pages. Then there is the superpower dimension, given that the 1973 War was the first conflict of the new period of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. There is also a leadership angle, since none of the three leaders of the United States, Egypt, and Israel were around during the 1967 War and each felt they were now being tested. There are also the public domestic dynamics and decision-making struggles each country faced, alongside other countries with various levels of engagement like Syria and Jordan. Moreover, there is the role of regional players before, during, and after the war. Needless to say, historians of the war will remain busy for quite some time. I will explore two of these many dimensions: first, an example of the miscalculations within the United States, Israel, and Egypt that impacted the war and second, the legacies of the 1973 War that cannot be separated from the miscalculations.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, History, Armed Conflict, Henry Kissinger, and 1973 War
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt