The Gradual Changes of the Attitude of Czechoslovak Diplomacy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict during the 1948–1967 Period
- Eva Taterová
Abstract
This study examines the evolution of Czechoslovak foreign policy towards
selected actors of Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948–1967. Once very friendly
relations of Czechoslovakia with Israel were soon replaced by a gradually
developing cooperation with some Arab actors. However, even this
partnership encountered several diffcult moments. Despite long-term
ideological disputes with Arab nationalist leaders, Czechoslovakia
demonstrated unconditional support for the Arab coalition in the Six-Day
War (1967), and the pro-Arab orientation had become the unquestionable
line of Czechoslovak Middle East policy in the Cold War. Since the article is
based on the New Cold War History approach, in addition to the previously
unpublished information from the archival documents it also aims to offer a
partial interpretation of Czechoslovakia’s diplomatic position as a satellite
state of the Soviet Union with regard to its foreign policy strategies towards
selected Middle Eastern Third world countries in the first two decades of
the Cold War.
Keywords
Arab-Israeli conflict, Six-Day War, Czechoslovakia, Middle East, Cold War, Czechoslovak diplomacy
Author Biography
Eva Taterová
Eva Taterova is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of the
Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. She earned her PhD in
International Relations from Masaryk University, Czech Republic, and her
M.A. degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev, Israel. In the spring semester of 2017 she taught Czech history
within the Frank A. Belousek Fellowship Program at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, USA in the capacity of a visiting scholar. Her research
interests include foreign policy and diplomacy of Czechoslovakia during the
Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, politics and history of the Middle East,
and anti-Semitism in Central Europe.