The End of Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf, 1968-1971

296 Pages·2020·2.748 MB·English

by  Brandon Friedman

The End of
Pax Britannica in the
Persian Gulf, 1968–1971
Brandon Friedman
The End of Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf,
1968–1971
Brandon Friedman
The End of Pax
Britannica in the
Persian Gulf,
1968–1971
Brandon Friedman
The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and
African Studies (MDC)
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv, Israel
ISBN 978-3-030-56181-9 ISBN 978-3-030-56182-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56182-6
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A
cknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the guidance and sup-
port of my doctoral supervisors, Professor David Menashri and Professor
Uzi Rabi. I owe a debt of immense gratitude to them for everything they
have done for me. I would also like to pay tribute to Professor Joseph
Kostiner (of blessed memory), whose influence on my work is like a finger-
sketch in the dust: its faint outline is not always visible, but it is always
there. I am also deeply indebted to my teachers, who generously shared
their knowledge and scholarship with me over the years: Professor Meir
Litvak, Professor Eyal Zisser, Dr. Paul Rivlin, Professor Bruce Maddy-
Weitzman, Professor Ofra Bengio, and Professor David Yeroushalmi. I
would also like to thank former directors of the Moshe Dayan Center
(MDC)—Professor Asher Susser, Professor Itamar Rabinovich, and
Professor Shimon Shamir—for their scholarly example, support, and
encouragement.
Tel Aviv University provided me with the enormous privilege and
opportunity to pursue a doctorate and later to become a member of the
faculty. This would not have happened without the institutional support
of the Moshe Dayan Center (MDC) for Middle Eastern and African
Studies, the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, the Department of Middle
Eastern and African History, and the Zvi Yavetz Graduate School of
Historical Studies. Collectively, these institutions have provided me with a
home for the past fifteen years. I am grateful for the generosity, warmth,
guidance, and assistance of a special group of accomplished scholars and
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
administrators. I would like to particularly thank the MDC’s Efrat
Shulman-Arad for her professionalism and support in recent years.
I was fortunate to begin my graduate studies when the Alliance Center
for Iranian Studies was being established by Professor David Menashri. I
am grateful to the Alliance Center’s principal donors—Lord David
Alliance, and David and Laura Merage—whose generosity made my doc-
torate possible. I would also like to acknowledge the Mieczyslaw Wejc
Memorial Doctoral Fellowship, which provided a substantial portion of
the annual funding that allowed me to complete my graduate studies.
My thanks to the editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan. Molly Beck
commissioned this work, and Sam Stocker has been a patient and respon-
sive editorial guide. I am particularly grateful to Ms. Beck for efficiently
shepherding the manuscript through the review process during the uncer-
tainty of the coronavirus outbreak. My thanks as well to the anonymous
reviewer for the constructive criticism and feedback, which I believe has
improved the final manuscript. Of course, all shortcomings and errors are
entirely my own.
I would also like to thank Taylor & Francis and the Editors of Middle
Eastern Studies, Saul Kelly and Helen Kedourie. This book is derived, in
part, from an article, “From union (ʾittihad) to united (muttahida): the
United Arab Emirates, a success born of failure,” published in a special
issue of Middle Eastern Studies, “From Aden to Abu Dhabi—Britain and
State Formation in Arabia, 1962–1971: A Retrospective,” in November
2016, and edited by the late Sylvia Kedourie. I would like to warmly thank
Professor Clive Jones of Durham University’s School of Government and
International Affairs for inviting me to participate in the workshop “Aden
and South Arabia: A Retrospective Study in the Failure of State Creation”
at Durham University in January 2015, which led to the publication of the
abovementioned article in a special edition of Middle Eastern Studies.
Elizabeth Michael, my “Oma,” and my late grandmother, Josephine
Friedman, encouraged and supported my decision to leave a secure career
and go to graduate school. I must especially remember my Oma, a survi-
vor if there ever was one. She taught me a great many things about life,
including the meaning of my Jewish identity, the value of education, and
the necessity of persistence, perseverance, and sacrifice. She passed away as
I was in the final stages of preparing this manuscript, and I deeply regret
that I will not be able to share this book with her.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
My wife, Magnenia Kabada, has brought immeasurable joy into my life
since we met. Our boys, Yoav and Rem, have endured my absentminded
preoccupation with this book with indefatigable indifference. My love for
them is boundless. Finally, this book is dedicated to my parents, David and
Shlomit Friedman, for their unconditional love and support. I am eter-
nally grateful.
A n t
ote on rAnsliterAtion
The U.S. Library of Congress table of Romanization was used to transliterate
Arabic words into English throughout this monograph. For names of people, I
also used the Library of Congress Romanization table; however, I did not include
diacritical marks for long vowels or velarized consonants. For commonly used
names and places I relied on the wordlist provided by the International Journal of
Middle East Studies (IJMES). So rather than Jamāl ʿAbd al-Nāsir, I used IJMES’s
Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, rather than using King Faisal, as recommended by
IJMES, I elected to use King Faysal. For the names of places, I relied on IJMES
or the most common English language usage. So, for example, rather than
(al- Kuwayt), I used Kuwait.
ix
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 The End of Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf 19
3 One Step Forward, One Step Back 51
4 Iran: The British Successor in the Gulf? 83
5 Nixon, the Shah, and King Faysal 113
6 Iran Shifting Gears 139
7 From Crisis to Clarity 163
8 A Sea Change in the Middle East and the Gulf 195
9 Grandeur and Independence 223
xi
xii CONTENTS
10 C onclusion 255
Bibliography 263
Index 275