ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dimension of crisis prevention, the attempt by and the capacity of the superpowers to restrain their allies from initiating war. It looks at the "vertical" linkages between superpower and regional ally rather than at the two sets of "horizontal" linkages between the two superpowers and among regional powers. The chapter also looks at attempts at crisis prevention in the Middle East to assess the difficulties of simultaneous management of an ally as well as an adversary. It further looks at the intensive American attempts to restrain Israel from initiating the war. Egypt provoked President Anwar el Sadat insisted that Egypt's interests were directly threatened by the process of detente between the two superpowers, by their joint interest in avoiding a major crisis in the Middle East. The Soviet Union was caught between two unpleasant options: sacrificing its most important ally in the Middle East or increasing the risk of confrontation and crisis with the United States.
