Historians continue to debate “what if” scenarios about the pivotal conflict which reshaped the Middle East

The Soviets tried to work out viable policies to deal with the fallout of the October War and Egypt’s pivot to the West

What prompted Egypt to move from a socialist state to a capitalist one, from Israel’s adversary to its reluctant diplomatic partner, from being a country with a strong national identity to a deeply divided one? The answer is war

Israel’s mistaken pre-war assumptions about the 1973 War caused it to fail to foresee the potential outbreak of a war with Egypt and Syria. What were these calculations based on and why did the United States follow suit?

Before the October 1973 War, U.S. administrations showed little interest in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The war was pivotal in launching U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East and kick-starting serious steps toward Egyptian-Israeli peacemaking

The October War came as a shock to the Israeli leadership and security community. Their failure to take Sadat’s peace approaches and the imminent threat of war seriously led to changes to both the regional and domestic Israeli political landscapes

In the years following the creation of Israel, the United States became the game master of the Arab-Israeli peace process. For Palestinians, this meant that they would not have a seat at the table for decades to come

Syrian gains in the conflict were elusive as a unilateral strategic move from the Egyptians put them in jeopardy

Four “what if’s” that could have changed the course of history

The outcomes of wars are evaluated based on how close any of the warring parties come to reaching their objectives. In the case of Egypt in the October War, it is undeniable that the country fulfilled its objectives

Reflections on how I experienced the war, first as a student-activist, then as a soldier, and later as a political scientist