ABSTRACT
The appearance of the Soviet flotilla in the north-western part of Indian Ocean nearly coincided with the unsuccessful attempt by the Israeli tanker, “Coral Sea,” to navigate the Bab-el-Mandab straits. Both events demonstrated the two potential means of interdicting the supply of oil to the West in the future: Intervention by regular armed forces or subversion by surrogate groups. It is important to stress that the area which supposedly holds nearly 60% of proven oil reserves of the world contains enormous asymmetries. In a recent conversation with the Kenyan Minister of Education, the author learned that he was forced to give up two-thirds of his budget because his country had to pay not the recent rise in the price of oil but the previous rise in the price of oil. It is naive, and indicative of ignorance of the Arab world and its mental makeup, to presume that to be anti-Soviet in this region is therefore to be pro-Western.
