1956 Arab-Israeli War

The Suez Crisis—also known as the Second Arab-Israeli War, the "Tripartite Aggression" (as it is called in the Arab world), and the Sinai War—was an invasion of Egypt by British, French, and Israeli forces in 1956. The crisis exposed the limitations of mid-century European "gunboat diplomacy" and ushered in the Eisenhower Doctrine, cementing the United States and the Soviet Union as the primary arbiters of security in the Middle East. In this simulation, the swift and timely diplomatic and economic pressure exerted by the United States and the Soviet Union—acting through the United Nations—forced Great Britain and France to call off their invasion at the last moment. Israel, however, had already begun its own. The likelihood of a pan-Arab "holy war" (or jihad) was low, though British leaders feared it might occur—and in this simulation, that fear becomes a reality. For this, I used the board game Sinai, published by SPI, which covers the wars that took place between 1956 and 1973.