# Arab Cold War
The Arab Cold War was the inter-Arab rivalry of the late 1950s and 1960s, pitting the radical nationalist republics led by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser against the conservative, pro-Western monarchies led by Saudi Arabia. The political scientist [Malcolm Kerr](https://www.edgepedia.org/malcolm-h-kerr), a scholar of Middle East politics, gave the period its name in his 1965 study *The Arab Cold War*, and the term has since been extended by analysts to describe later regional confrontations, including the post-2003 contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran.[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/resurgence-of-the-arab-cold-war-1/18243670AD9CF4C61C675F364AC6752A) • [2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name and origin | Coined by Malcolm Kerr in *The Arab Cold War* (1965); a revised edition appeared in 1967[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/resurgence-of-the-arab-cold-war-1/18243670AD9CF4C61C675F364AC6752A) |
| Period | Late 1950s through the 1960s, dominated by the Egyptian-Saudi rivalry[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) |
| Main camps | Conservative pro-Western monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, pre-1958 Iraq) versus radical, secular, pan-Arabist republics led by Egypt (with Syria, post-1958 Iraq, and Algeria)[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) |
| Central battleground | The Yemeni civil war of 1962-1970: Egypt backed the republicans, Saudi Arabia the royalists[4](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/10/05/houthis-in-yemen-saudi-arabia-helped-create-the-conditions-for-the-rise-of-its-most-formidable-adversary_6758275_4.html) |
| Cost to Egypt | Approximately 26,000 Egyptian soldiers died in Yemen; the force there reached 70,000 by 1966[5](https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/egypts-yemen-campaign) • [6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/) |
| Defining features | Division, Egyptian-Saudi rivalry, ideology, and the interplay between domestic and regional politics, fought out largely in weak states[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) |
| Later usage | A "New Arab Cold War" framework describes post-2003 and post-2011 regional polarization, including the Saudi-Iran contest[7](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210511000283) • [2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf) |
## Origins and camps
The term followed Malcolm Kerr's study of ideology in inter-Arab politics. Although it unfolded during the global Cold War and in a region both superpowers prized, the Arab Cold War was mostly dictated by Arab agency and had a distinctly Arab dimension; its main features were division, the Egyptian-Saudi rivalry, ideology, and the interplay between domestic and regional politics.[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) • [2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf)
**Two camps.** The first camp was the conservative and pro-Western monarchies, Jordan, Lebanon, and pre-1958 Iraq, led by Saudi Arabia. The second camp consisted of Arab republics of a radical, secular, nominally socialist, pan-Arabist, and largely pro-Soviet orientation, namely Syria, post-1958 Iraq, and Algeria, with Egypt at their head.[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) An Al Jazeera Centre for Studies account describes the same division as a Soviet-backed, leftist-leaning Arab nationalist camp under Nasser against a more conservative U.S.-supported camp of Saudi Arabia and Jordan.[8](https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2018/09/shifts-middle-east-balance-power-historical-perspective-180902084750811.html)
The era was turbulent: a wave of coups and countercoups swept the [Arab world](https://www.edgepedia.org/arab-world) as a new generation of military officers cast aside the previous order, and unity projects were born and disintegrated, including the [United Arab Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-arab-republic) (UAR), the United Arab State (UAS), and the Arab Union.[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) Egypt and Syria formed the UAR in 1958, and the UAR aligned itself with the Soviet Union and purchased Soviet arms, injecting the global Cold War into the region; the union collapsed in 1961 when Syria withdrew.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/) Splits also followed Iraq's nationalist revolution of 1958: [Abd al-Karim Qasim](https://www.edgepedia.org/abd-al-karim-qasim), despite ideological proximity to Nasser's pan-Arabism, refused Egyptian tutelage, and Syria and Iraq moved to balance against Egyptian hegemonic designs.[2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf)
## Ideology and propaganda
The rivalry was fought with ideas as much as armies. Egypt promoted a socialist revolutionary model, while Saudi Arabia countered the perceived ideational threat by standing for and actively supporting a monarchical model legitimized by the religious establishment.[2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf)
**Radio war.** Egypt's Voice of the Arabs broadcast to the whole Arab world, calling pro-Western rulers "lackeys of imperialism." Britain responded by operating an Arabic-language station that posed as an Arab commercial outlet; it took the name the Voice of Britain during the 1956 Suez conflict, and in 1967 Cairo radio claimed victories against an air force that had actually destroyed Egypt's own.[9](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/suez-radio-war/)
## The Yemen battleground
The clearest military expression of the Arab Cold War was the Yemeni civil war. In 1962, republican forces supported by Egypt overthrew the Saudi-backed imamate, a theocratic kingdom that had ruled parts of northern Yemen on and off for about 1,000 years, launching a civil war that lasted until 1970, with Saudi Arabia backing the royalists and Egypt the republicans.[10](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/external-intervention-and-damages-to-human-security-in-yemen/) • [4](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/10/05/houthis-in-yemen-saudi-arabia-helped-create-the-conditions-for-the-rise-of-its-most-formidable-adversary_6758275_4.html)
**Egyptian intervention.** After the September 1962 coup against Imam Ahmed bin Yahya's succession, Egypt immediately recognized the new [Yemen Arab Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/yemen-arab-republic) and intervened, an operation code named Operation 9000. [Anwar Sadat](https://www.edgepedia.org/anwar-sadat), then speaker of the National Assembly, argued the intervention would restore momentum toward Arab unity after Syria's withdrawal from the UAR and provide a base for operations against Saudi Arabia and the British-held port of Aden.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/) In the first year of the war Egypt used 18 ships to make 122 deliveries of supplies to Yemen; the CIA estimated 4,000 Egyptian troops in country by October 31, 1962, growing to 30,000 by March 1963 and 70,000 by 1966.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/) Approximately 26,000 Egyptian soldiers died fighting Saudi-backed royalists over the course of the war.[5](https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/egypts-yemen-campaign) Egyptian intelligence literature later analyzed the intervention's aim of stabilizing Yemen and establishing a military presence on the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border, while Saudi Arabia bolstered its support for the royalists in response.[11](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13530194.2024.2443924)
**Superpower involvement.** The Soviet Union recognized the new republic on October 1, 1962, the first non-Arab state to do so, and responded to Nasser's request for airlift help by sending ten [Antonov An-12](https://www.edgepedia.org/antonov-an-12) heavy-lift aircraft with Soviet crews, the first flight reaching Sana'a on September 30, 1962. From late October 1962, Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 bombers flown by Soviet crews bombed royalist targets along the Saudi-Yemeni border. At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union under [Nikita Khrushchev](https://www.edgepedia.org/nikita-khrushchev) was thus directly intervening in a civil war that threatened the survival of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, America's oldest partner in the Arab world.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/)
**The royalist side and its helpers.** Saudi Arabia and Jordan aided the royalists, and Britain ran a secret organization from London that recruited mercenaries, many from Belgium and France, to assist them. Israel also joined the clandestine campaign: the royalists asked the Mossad for help, and the [Israeli Air Force](https://www.edgepedia.org/israeli-air-force) flew over Saudi Arabia to drop weapons to the royalists with Saudi knowledge and approval, in an operation called Rotev.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/)
**End of the war.** President John F. Kennedy kept the United States out of direct fighting, recognized the republican government on December 19, 1962, and sent his emissary Ellsworth Bunker to mediate; the UN Yemen Observation Mission failed to broker a withdrawal and was disbanded in September 1964. By 1966 the war was bankrupting Cairo, and Egypt's best army units were in Yemen when the [Six-Day War](https://www.edgepedia.org/six-day-war) broke out in June 1967; Israeli experts acknowledge that this distraction contributed to Israel's success against Egypt. After the defeat, Faisal and Nasser agreed to end their support for the warring parties, the [Egyptians](https://www.edgepedia.org/egyptians) evacuated, and a final cease-fire ended the civil war in 1970 with a republic still in place.[6](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/)
## Character of the conflict
Kerr's analysis resisted a simple reading. He showed that the axes of conflict and cooperation across the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s did not congeal neatly into a grand contest of radicals versus conservatives, and the "revolutionary republics" hardly ever worked together during the Nasser era.[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/resurgence-of-the-arab-cold-war-1/18243670AD9CF4C61C675F364AC6752A) The contest was fought largely in weak states that became battlegrounds between regional powers, as in the Egyptian-Iraqi rivalry over Syria and the Egyptian and Saudi roles in Yemen.[3](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf) The crisis in Yemen came at the height of this rivalry, which dominated regional politics in the late 1950s and 1960s.[12](https://academic.oup.com/isagsq/article/3/2/ksad023/7142939)
## The "New Arab Cold War"
Analysts have reused the concept for later periods. Nabeel Khoury, a former U.S. diplomat, contends in a 2013 study that a New Arab Cold War has taken shape, pitting conservative monarchies against both "transitioning republics" like Tunisia and Egypt and "non-state Islamist" movements, some closely aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran.[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/resurgence-of-the-arab-cold-war-1/18243670AD9CF4C61C675F364AC6752A) The New Arab Cold War perspective in international-relations scholarship aims at supplementing, rather than supplanting, the prominent moderate-radical, sectarian, and Realist-Westphalian narratives, by rediscovering the Arab Cold War of the 1950s and 1960s and stressing the transformation of [Arab nationalism](https://www.edgepedia.org/arab-nationalism) and new trans-Arab media.[7](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210511000283)
Since the 2003 Iraq war, Ruth Hanau Santini, associate professor at the University of Naples "L'Orientale," describes a New Regional Cold War in the [Middle East and North Africa](https://www.edgepedia.org/middle-east-and-north-africa) with two competing logics: the politicization of sectarianism opposing a Saudi-led Sunni bloc against an Iran-led Shia bloc, and an intra-Sunni cleavage over the mobilization of political Islam embodied by the [Muslim Brotherhood](https://www.edgepedia.org/muslim-brotherhood) and its supporters versus its opponents.[2](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf) A Brookings analysis argues the new Middle East cold war shares the Arab cold war's characteristics: weak regimes as arenas of struggle, major roles for non-state actors, contending camps that were not always united, and [great powers](https://www.edgepedia.org/great-power) as important participants but not the drivers of events; it also judges the new confrontation likely to be as protracted as the Arab cold war was.[13](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/english-pdf-1.pdf)
## References
1. [The Resurgence of The Arab Cold War, Review of Middle East Studies (Cambridge Core)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/resurgence-of-the-arab-cold-war-1/18243670AD9CF4C61C675F364AC6752A)
2. [Ruth Hanau Santini (2017). A New Regional Cold War in the Middle East and North Africa, The International Spectator](https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/hanausantini.pdf)
3. [METU thesis on the Arab Cold War and weak states in regional politics](https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625288/index.pdf)
4. [Houthis in Yemen, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/10/05/houthis-in-yemen-saudi-arabia-helped-create-the-conditions-for-the-rise-of-its-most-formidable-adversary_6758275_4.html)
5. [Egypt's Yemen Campaign, The Washington Institute](https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/egypts-yemen-campaign)
6. [John F. Kennedy's Yemen crisis, Brookings Institution](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/)
7. [The New Arab Cold War: rediscovering the Arab dimension of Middle East regional politics, Review of International Studies](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210511000283)
8. [Shifts in the Middle East Balance of Power: An Historical Perspective, Al Jazeera Centre for Studies](https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2018/09/shifts-middle-east-balance-power-historical-perspective-180902084750811.html)
9. [Voice of the Arabs and the Voice: techniques and sources, FRAME Propaganda Archive](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/suez-radio-war/)
10. [External intervention and damages to human security in Yemen, Brookings Institution](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/external-intervention-and-damages-to-human-security-in-yemen/)
11. ["Nasir's Vietnam": analysing Egyptian intelligence literature on the Yemen intervention, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13530194.2024.2443924)
12. [Neoclassical Realist Theory of Overbalancing, Global Studies Quarterly](https://academic.oup.com/isagsq/article/3/2/ksad023/7142939)
13. [Regional fragmentation and the new Middle East cold war, Brookings Institution](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/english-pdf-1.pdf)
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