Suez Crisis 1956

1
Suez Crisis 1956

• Kaitlyn Acerbo
• Rose Bellandi
• Audrey Comstock

2
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
• 1950s Egypt starts to express interest in
  regaining control of the canal
• 1954 British pull out from the canal and Nasser
  nationalizes it

3
Churchill
Nasser
Coty
Khrushchev
Ben-Gurion
Eisenhower
Sharett
4
Causes

• Breakdown of alliances
• Challenges to sovereignty
• Growing tensions
• Withdrawal of US financial support for the Aswan
  Dam

5
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)

6
Statement by President Eisenhower
7
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
  NATOs military.
• US took the place of France and the UK.
  Relationships between states changed.
• Increased anti-British, anti-western, Arab
  nationalism.
• Palestinians lose faith in the Arab world to help
  get a Palestinian.

8
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 treatytherefore abandoning
  peace-making processremoval from process doesn't
  correspond to preventative theory of acting in
  defense

9
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 situation2.DPT
  says Democracies won't war as often with EACH
  OTHER3.Nasser wasn't democratically elected he
  was appointed

10
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