Arms Control in the Middle East: Between Self-Help and Cooperation

In his dissertation, Daniel Müller investigates the reasons behind Egypt’s, Syria’s and Jordan’s deviating arms control policies in the realm of weapons of mass destruction: Jordan is considered to be an outright cooperative, though low-profile diplomatic actor; Egypt passes for a pro-active diplomatic heavy weight, which nonetheless formally boycotts crucial arms control and non-proliferation measures and efforts; Syria finally attracted international attention due to its broad boycott of and non-compliance with central arms control regimes and treaties, and holds accountable for the development and the recent use of chemical weapons. Considering their seemingly similar political framework conditions, common assumptions of Foreign Policy and International Relations Theory do not provide satisfying explanations for their diverging policy stances.