ABSTRACT
The preponderance of Sunni Arabs in the heartland of the Middle East has time and again resulted in conflict between the latter and other groups in the region--whether non-Arab, non-Muslim, or Muslim. One of the most depressing aspects of the notion of security dilemma is that it does not start from Hobbesian assumptions about the meanness of human nature. Both Britain and France until the early 1950s and the United States and the USSR ever since have been unwilling--perhaps even unable--to commit resources to the defense of their positions in the Middle East as extensively as would be required to ensure that their interests prevailed. Egypt and Syria abandoned their links with Britain and France, respectively, and shifted to a dependence on the Soviet bloc. Syria, like Egypt, launched the war in the most favorable conditions. Its soldiers fought just as bravely as their Egyptian allies.
