Abstract
Geopolitical factors constitute the main point of reference for any analysis of Soviet policy towards the Middle East. To Russia, latterly the Soviet Union, the Middle East is not just another Third World area; it is the area, for no reason other than it is the only part of the Third World immediately adjoining Russian territory, and as such a vital component of the USSR’s rimland, posing both grave risks and considerable opportunities to its national security and economic well-being.1 The USSR’s fundamental interest in the Middle East has therefore been essentially identical (though less intense) with the one held in its immediate European neighbours — Finland, the Baltic states, the Balkans before the Second World War, and Central Europe since then — namely, the attainment of a stable and safe frontier in order to minimize potential threats emanating from all these contiguous territories. Stability in this context means both the prevention of external great-power intervention and the preservation of a benevolent local environment. In the case of the Middle East, this interest was further reinforced by Russia’s long-standing desire to control the straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles in order to provide an outlet for its naval activities in the rest of the world as well as to block the passage of European warships into the Black Sea.2
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
A. L. Horelick, ‘Soviet Policy in the Middle East’, in P. Y. Hammond and S. S. Alexander (eds), Political Dynamics in the Middle East (New York: American Elsevier, 1972) p. 559.
E. H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) vol. III, p. 464.
B. Kuniholm, The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980) p. 265.
Y. Primakov, Anatomy of the Middle East Conflict (Moscow: Nauka, 1979) p. 145.
P. Seale, The Struggle for Syria (London: Oxford University Press for the RIIA, 1965) p. 234.
For a description of Soviet support for Syria during the 1957 crisis see, for example, W. Z. Laqueur, The Soviet Union and the Middle East (London: Routledge & Kegan, 1959) pp. 247–64
J. McConnell, ‘Doctrine and Capabilities’, in B. Dismukes and J. McConnell (eds), Soviet Naval Diplomacy (New York: Pergamon, 1979) pp. 7–10.
G. Lenczowski, Soviet Advances in the Middle East (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1971) p. 110.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Efraim Karsh
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karsh, E. (1991). Introduction. In: Soviet Policy towards Syria since 1970. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11482-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11482-5_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11484-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11482-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)