ABSTRACT
Diversity best describes military politics in the postwar Middle East. The military structures were as variable as the states that they were supposed to serve. To begin with, the military establishments under review were primarily armies. Almost all Middle East governments aspired to develop air forces, but by and large these remained relatively small. Smaller still were the navies, wherever they existed. In each typical instance the military conspirators, in advance of the overturn of the regime, suborned key officers of elite garrisons posted in the capital or its outskirts. With the help of such garrisons, or after their neutralization if the help were withheld, the plotting officers entered the capital with armored units in the predawn hours. The military junta in Egypt that had forced King Faruq to abdicate on 26 July 1952 set up a Regency Council a week later to serve, in theory, as the custodian for the infant King Ahmad Fuad II.
