Spatio-Temporal Constraints and the US Policy Selection of Arms Transfers to the Middle East Countries
Arms transfer is a crucial tool for the United States to implement its foreign pol-icy.the US tailored differentiated strategies towards Middle East countries that sought arms imports.The authors propose,based on dimensions across time and space,that the level of threat urgency and the size of strategic choice affect the US bargaining power in the Middle East.This shapes the US arms transfer strategy in terms of both quality and quantity,ulti-mately determining the provision of strategically significant arms and recipient satisfaction with the quantity acquired.Through meticulous analysis of declassified documents,the au-thors have scrutinized the US arms transfer cases to key Middle East countries-Turkey,Is-rael,Iran,Saudi Arabia,and Egypt-during the Eisenhower,Kennedy,Nixon-Ford,and Carter administrations.By focusing on how strategic considerations evolve under tempo-ral and spatial constraints,this paper reveals that the urgency of threat and the space of strategic choice are central variables shaping the US arms transfer strategy,with special emphasis on qualitative and quantitative features and differences.Moreover,this paper dis-cusses in depth the bargaining power of powerful states in asymmetric alliances.
arms transferMiddle East securityasymmetric alliancesurgency of threatsspace of strategic choice
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