US Foreign Assistance, Israeli Resource Allocation and the Arms Race in the Middle East: An Analysis of Three Interdependent Resource Allocation Processes

In many areas of the world, both developing and developed, the United States and a local ally have a, common interest in the ally’s security and survival in an environment of escalating and/or volatile challenge and threat. The demands of client states for US help, together with the opportunities they create to influence political texture and events is also likely to be a continuing phenomenon on the international scene. This being the case, continued improvement in our understanding of how the various participants in these conflict processes interact is desirable. Since these processes have been going on for twenty years or more, considerable data may be around to allow for more quantitative description of the processes and of their interactions. As candidates for such an analysis, Israel and the Middle East are notable; Israel for the ambition of its security and development objectives and for its success in obtaining external finance; the Middle East region for the persistence and virulence of its arms race. Moreover, especially in the case of Israel, reliable statistics extending back twenty years are available.