Nasser and the Missile Age in the Middle East

This book demonstrates how Egyptian efforts to acquire longrange surfacetosurface missiles in the early 1960s provide an important case study in thefield of bal... » 

This book demonstrates how Egyptian efforts to acquire longrange surfacetosurface missiles in the early 1960s provide an important case study in thefield of ballistic missile proliferation and carry important lessons for thepresentday scourge of weapons of mass destruction. It first traces the historyof the early Egyptian ballistic missile program beginning with the successfulrecruitment of German scientists who had prior experience in Hitlers V1 and V2missile projects. It then demonstrates how Israel directed its formidablesecurity apparatus to collect intelligence on and defeat Egypts missileambitions and how this intelligence sparked a crisis in the Israeli leadershipas Israeli officials anxiously debated strategies to grapple with this newthreat to their national security and finally adopted a multifaceted approachthat focused on intimidating the scientists and their families appealing tothe West German government to order the scientists recall and attempting toget the US government involved in the intricacies of the ArabIsraeli conflict.Drawing on material from recently declassified US government documents thisvolume demonstrates how Nassers missile program played an instrumental role incementing the USIsraeli national security relationship and concludes withseveral important lessons for the global proliferation of ballistic missiletechnologies.This book will be of great interest to scholars of proliferation internationalrelations the Middle East disarmament and security studies in general. «