Implications of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race

Abstract

For some thirty years, the Arab-Israeli arms race seems to have become an inevitable fact of international life. Indeed, the ingenuity used by some of the participants to acquire additional weapons has sometimes been amazing. Nevertheless, whatever the means by which such acquisitions materialized, the important point is that there has been an arms race in existence for somne time. During that period, four main wars have occurred, with each conflict being fought at a much higher level in terms of the sophistication of armaments used and destruction wrought. Certainly the competition for military superiority, or even balance, has important implications in terms of foreign policy perceptions, and affects in particular the willingness to take chances on peace when the weapons of war exist in abundance. Thus it is necessary to examine the effect arms races may have on the perceptions of foreign policy decision-makers involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Historically, there was a temporary abatement of this seemingly continually intensely developing arms race, but this occurred 25 years ago and was never again to transpire in succeeding years. In 1950, the Tripartite Declaration Regarding Security in the Near East, was announced by the United States, Great Britain and France in an effort to head off an arms race between the Arab states and Israel. The agreement was effective for at least three years, and some would argue for five. Those propounding the latter figure would contend that the agreement