Weapons without influence: British arms supply policy and the Egyptian-Czech arms deal, 1945-55

In its attempts to bring Egypt to sign a defence agreement that would allow Britain to keep its military bases there, the British government, in addition to traditional diplomatic activity, sought to exploit Egypt's enforced dependency on Britain as its sole supplier of arms, and applied what became known as 'arms supply diplomacy'. However, the attempt to use arms supply to gain influence produced the opposite result: the Egyptians regarded the policy as an obvious sign of British paternalism. They interpreted British insistence as a sign of arrogant imperialism, which ultimately led to a deep rift, and to Egypt's defection from the Western camp. © 2006 Taylor & Francis.