The Strategic Causes of Conflict - What caused the 1973 Arab-Israeli Essay

The Strategic Causes of Conflict - What caused the 1973 Arab-Israeli War - Essay Example Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat instead opted to resolve the issues through diplomacy, and resorted to withdrawing the Mitla and Gidi. Additionally, President Anwar suggested starting the diplomatic relations with the US and signing a peace pact with Israel, however, Israel also decided to withdraw to the armistice borders that were earlier established before June 5, 1967. There have been various schools of thought with regards to the implications and genesis of this war, on one side, the West European political elites placed blame on the United States for provoking the war through the assistance it provided to Israel. On the other side of the divide, Edward Heath, the then British Prime Minister did not welcome the United State’s response towards the war by its unanimous decision to uplift nuclear forces to Defense Condition 3 (DEFCON3) without giving the British government timely warning. Scholars have provided various perspectives of the October 1973 war, with a major focus on the military dimension, its societal implications between Arab, Israel and its neighbors, and its crisis in the Cold War. Given its huge crisis and implications, various researchers have only compared this war to the Suez War in 1956, the Bosnian civil war of 1992-3, and the latest Iraq war of 2003. 3This paper examines the strategic causes of this and the involvement of countries that fueled the war. An attempt is also made to provide an in depth analysis of the Western influence into this war with a focus on Britain and US. At the end of this paper and an attempt will be made to look into the negotiation process and peace building strategies that were put in place in a bid to resolve this war. Background to the Israel-Arab War When the Israel-Arab War broke out in the year 1973, Israel found itself in a defenseless position and not ready for the War for the first time – scholars have a rgued that this was a very big mistake for a nation that possessed very little information on its territorial boundaries and its enemies. However, with the progress of the war, Israel over time gained military superiority, but all in all, it was Egypt that emerged victors in the war through be achieving its main goal. In the end, the stalemate that had been at the heart of the Israeli-occupied Sinai was resolved, leading to the Camp David Accords and the Egypt’s reacquisition of the Peninsula. Other scholars have conceded that the War was in equal measure the success of President Anwar Sadat, and it never have been possible without the element of surprise tactics achieved through a carefully planned strategic deception approaches. While there were various elements to that deception campaign, an interesting one that was employed relevant to this particular case was the one of Ashraf Marwan, who was a high ranking-ranking Egyptian official and Israeli spy who by that time marri ed to the daughter of Ganal Abdel Nasser. In his endeavor in making diplomatic approaches to the conflict, President Anwar was already in the process of preparing for war. In this process, President Anwar contacted his Syrian counterpart, President Hafiz al-Asad to plan