ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
This article examines the policy of the British government towards the arm trade activity in the Middle East during the 1967 and 1973 Arab Israeli Wars. The purpose of the study is to compare the justification and approaches taken by London on the issue of arm exports to the conflicting nations between the Sixth Days of War in 1967 and the 1973’s Yom Kippur War. From historical perspective, this study argues that despite the changes of the government from Labor to the Conservative in 1970, the arms sale policy was remained unaltered. The reason of the unchanged policy was based on the economic assessment that the region was one of the most lucrative market for Britain’s arm sales. In addition to the effort of safeguarding Britain’s oil import and other businesses, the arms trade has emerged as one of the vital factors which dominated London consideration in constructing her foreign affairs strategy in the Middle East during the conflicts. The evidences and data extracted mostly from the government archival records declassified in London, proven the argument that the British policy towards the two wars was enduring and very much influenced by the profitable arm trade consideration.
ACDA - US Arms Control and Disarming Agency. (1976). World Military Expenditure and Arm Transfers, 1966-1975. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Ashworth, R.C. (1973). [A letter from R.C Ashworth to the Controller, DTI]. In file FCO 93/292. London: The National Archive.
Brown, G. (1967). [ A Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Arab Attitude and British Economic Interest in the Middle East]. In file FCO 17/34. London: The National Archive.
Brown, G. (1967) [ A note by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, ‘Policy for the sale of arms to Israel and the Arab countries]. In file FCO 10/143. London: The National Archive.
Brown, G. (1967). Note by Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Policy for the Arms to Israel and Arab Countries]. In file FCO 17/114. London: The National Archive.
Brown, G. A. (1967). [A note by Secretary of Foreign Affairs, George Brown, 1967]. In file FCO17/114. London: The National Archive.
Brzoska, M., & Ohlson, T. (1987). Arms Transfer to The Third World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Callaghan, J. (2007). The Labor Party and Foreign Policy: A History. Routledge: London.
Caradon, H. M. F. L. (1967) Minute of UN Meeting, no. 1553, 14 July 1967. New York: United Nations.
Croswait, T. L. (1986). [A Report on Arms Sales to Middle East]. In file FCO17/114. London: The National Archive.
Deger, S. (1986). Military Expenditure in Third World Countries. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Douglas-Home, A. (1973, 16 October). [Extract from House of Commons, Hansard, Col. 30-41, Vol. 861, 16 October 1973]. In file FCO 93/205. London: The National Archive.
FCO, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (1973). [Extraction from the interview of the BBC Programme TODAY on 12 October 1973, telegram no. 528]. In file FCO 93/262. London: The National Archive.
FCO, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (1973). [A Minute of Meeting between Plessey’s representatives and the DTI]. In file FCO 93/565. London: The National Archive.
FCO, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (1967). [Guidance no 160, Memorandum from The FCO to British missions oversea]. In File FCO 12/112. London: The National Archive.
Gilmour, I. (1973). [A Letter from Ian Gilmour to Lord Balniel].In file DEFE 13/942. London: The National Archive.
Gottheil, F. (1974). An Economic Assessment of the Military Burden in the Middle East 1960-1980. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 18 (3), 502-503.
Heath, E. (1998). The Autobiography of Edward Heath: The Course of My Life. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
HoD, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (1973). [A minute from Head of Defence Sales to Secretary of Defence]. In file DEFE 13/942. London: The National Archive.
HoD, Ministry of Defence. (1973). [Extract from Ministry of Defense’s memo, a minute by Head of Defense Sales to Private Secretary of the Secretary of State for Defense] In file DEFE 13/1492. London: The National Archive.
MoD, Ministry of Defence. (1973). [A Report by MoD] In file DEFE 13/942. London: The National Archive.
MoD, Ministry of Defence, UK. (1967). [Record of British Sales of Defence Equipment], In file PREM 15/296. London: The National Archive.
Parson, A. D. (1973). [A Minute from A.D Parsons, Under Secretary of State to Mr. Alexander, Blackpool]. In file FCO 93/205. London: The National Archive.
Phythian, M. (2000). The Politics of British Arm Sales Since 1964. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stahl, D. (2019). The Decolonization of the Arms Trade: Britain and the Regulation of Exports to the Middle East. History of Global Arms Transfer, (7), 14- 15.
Wilson, H. (1966). Parliamentary Hansard. Vol. 732, Cols. 623-633. London: House of Commons.
In-Text Citation: (Zakariah, 2020)
To Cite this Article: Zakariah, M. H. (2020). Britain Arms Trade in The Middle East During the Arab Israeli Wars of 1967 and 1973: A Comparative Historical Review. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(11), 745–755.
Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode