Suez Crisis 1956
Kaitlyn Acerbo
Rose Bellandi
Audrey Comstock
Background Information
• Built in 1869
• Run by the Suez Canal Company
• 1875 Egypt sells its share to the
British, the canal was kept as a
neutral zone
• Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936
• 1950’s Egypt starts to express interest
in regaining control of the canal
• 1954 British pull out from the canal
and Nasser nationalizes it
Churchill
Nasser
Coty
Khrushchev
Ben-Gurion
Eisenhower
Sharett
Causes
• Breakdown of alliances
• Challenges to sovereignty
• Growing tensions
• Withdrawal of US financial
support for the Aswan Dam
Questions for the Class
•What would you do?
•Was this growing issue
one of purely colonialist
remnants in Africa?
•Could an intervention
based on economic
interests happen today
(2007)
Statement by President
Eisenhower
Effects
• Britain loses power as a world power
and loses standing with its allies.
• Soviets gained standing in the
Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
• French government changed.France
pulled out of NATO’s military.
• US took the place of France and the
UK. Relationships between states
changed.
• Increased anti-British, antiwestern, Arab nationalism.
• Palestinians lose faith in the Arab
world to help get a Palestinian.
Suez was a preventative war :
What is a preventative war?
Preemptive war is justified by an imminent threat of attack, a clear and
present danger that the country in question is about to attack you. In such a
case a preemptive attack is recognized as justifiable. (Cirincione)
Yes:
• 1.Alliances lead to war (liberal theory
basis)
2. Conflict Spiral
No:
• Alliances and treaties lead to peace
(realist)
• nationalism of dam not in self-defense
• Egypt backed out of treaty
therefore abandoning peace-making process
removal from process doesn't correspond to
preventative theory of acting in defense
Suez Crisis Disproves
Democratic Peace Theory
What is the Democratic Peace Theory?
Democracies, in particular liberal democracies, will not war with each other
Yes:
•
Economic relations * BUT Egypt/US/UK had economic ties and a
basis to cooperate (oil) and still warred and initiated
conflict spiral
No:
•
1.DPT isn't applicable in this situation:
2.DPT says Democracies won't war as often with EACH OTHER
3.Nasser wasn't democratically elected; he was appointed
Suez Crisis lead to EU
Yes:
•
•
•
•
1.The Suez Crisis demonstrated the need for a united voice
from Europe to
prevent future conflicts over economic causes
2.The EU created a venue for a regional untied voice
3.during the Suez Crisis the only IGO present giving
instructions was
the UN, who proposed resolutions calling for a ceasefire
4. an action that European forces believed contrary to their
economic motivations
No:
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. The Suez Crisis didn't lead to the EU formation
2. The foundation for the EU stemmed much earlier:
3. Following WWII Europe wanted to prevent another war in
Europe
4 There was the formation of the ECSC and the ECC
5.These organizations eventually caused the creation of the EU
6. Along with the global need to balance the power of the
growing hegemon the United States