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The study of the Arab-Israeli conflict
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2009
Extract
A Head-on collision between two national movements; a clash between Western and Oriental cultures; disputes over territories, borders, maritime rights, property and refugees; intense mutual suspicion engendered by a long and tortuous history of strife; highly distorted images of the adversary; a chronically unstable pattern of regional politics; the intrusion of Great Power rivalry and a spiralling arms race: these are only some of the ingredients which account for the complexity and uniqueness of the Arab-Israeli conflict and make the Middle East the most volatile and explosive sub-system of the international political system. Here, in Michael Howard's phrase, is a “hell-brew to end all hell-brews”. The problem is a political scientist's paradise; a statesman's nightmare; and, for the military specialist, a matter for grisly, but absorbing concern.
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- Copyright © British International Studies Association 1977
References
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