92
Friday, May 9, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
NEWS
GOT
A
QUESTION?
Influence Of Armaments
Has Lessened In M.E.
London — The conventional
wisdom concerning arms trans-
fers to the Middle East, which
has it that superpower sales
bring with them leverage over
the recipients in case of war and
influence which may be used to
promote peaceful settlement of
disputes, would seem to be un-
tenable in the light of recent
developments in the arms trans-
fer field.
Rather than strengthen
superpower control over events,
"the net result of arms transfer
policies over the past decade has
been to create a network of
regional actors increasingly in-
dependent of external forces."
The overall picture is one of a
situation which, should it erupt,
"may be vastly less controllable
and much more destructive than
in the past." It resembles a "vor-
tex" into which "disinterested or
wilfully disinterested actors
such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia
may be drawn."
These are the conclusions of a
research report by Keith
Krause, an international rela-
tions specialist at Balliol Col-
lege, Oxford, published by the
Institute of Jewish Affairs in
London.
One of the factors which com-
prise this new "arms transfer
system" is the huge arms built-
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up in the region, which has
created large arsenals upon
which the states of the region
could draw in the event of
armed conflict, even if they can-
not absorb all of the materiel
into their armed forces in the
short term. This would reduce
the type of control exercised by
the superpowers over the war-
ring parties through - re-supplies
seen in the 1967 and 1973 wars.
Also of great importance is
the policy of the Middle Eastern
states to diversify their sources
of arms supplies. Though this
often entails sacrifices in effi-
ciency, states nevertheless jus-
tify this policy by weighing it
against the benefit of reducing
potential influence exercised by
a single supplier.
Even in cases like the Syrian,
where dependence on a single
superpower supplier (Russia) is
high, the supplier's record of
influence over crucial policy de-
cisions concerning issues of war
and peace is poor, explains the
author.
Inter-Arab arms and financial
flows have also had the effect of
reducing the potential influence
of the superpowers over the be-
havior of the Arab states in
times of conflict.
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V. • •
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Weizmann Institute scientists are using carbon dating techniques to
determine the age of an ancient boat discovered in the Sea of Galilee
this winter.
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