Demise of the British Empire in the Middle East: Britain's Responses to National

This volume deals with the gradual eclipse of British power in the Middle East, a process that began during World War Two and reached its denouement with the British agreement to evacuate the Suez Base in 1954. The chapters have been written by an array of scholars, from England, Israel and the United States, each a leader in their own field. Together, they present a survey of the last years of British hegemony in the Middle East. Britain emerged from World War Two an exhausted and bankrupt nation. The Labour administration that took power after the war had other priorities than maintaining British interests overseas. Parliamentary decisions turned British attentions away from the Suez Canal region, in spite of the fact that the military base built up over the years was to be a platform for the strategic air offensive against the Soviets, in the event of a third world conflict. However, Britain's evident weakness and inability to maintain a large garrison in the region were evident t.