Irresolute princes

In Irresolute Princes, author Fred Wehling challenges academia's conventional explanations for Soviet behavior during the Arab-Israeli conflict. While most analysts contend that the USSR followed a preplanned, calculated strategy of providing its Arab allies with a minimum of support sufficient only to avoid defeat and not to secure victory, Wehling disagrees. He shows that rather than following a predetermined script, Soviet actions in fact reflected the Soviet leaders' unwillingness or inability to reconcile their regional goals with broader global objectives. Adopting a novel approach to…