The Sudan's Foreign Policy Today
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500307 |
| Author | Tareq Y. Ismael |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Sudan's
Foreign
Policy
Today
Tareq
Y.
Ismael
The
coup
of
25
May
1969
that
overthrew
the
civilian
government
of
the
Sudan
dramatically highlights
the
reorientation
of
the
Sudan's
foreign
policy
from
alignment
with
the
West
to
closer
relations
with
the
Soviet
Union
and
the
Arab
states.
Although
initiated
by
a leftist
military
coup,
the
new
government
has
merely
committed
itself
to
the
acceleration
of
a
process
that
began
as
a
result
of
the
Arab-Israeli
June
1967
war
-a
process
that
is
a
revolution
in
the
Sudan's
traditional
foreign
policy.
The
Sudan's
traditional
foreign
policy
evolved
under
the
influ-
ence
of
Egypt
and
Britain,
the
two
countries
so
intricately
bound
up
in
its
history.
Its
relations
with
Egypt,
dating
from
pre-
Dynastic
times, are
essentially
geopolitical.
The
Nile
Valley
makes
the
two
countries
a
geographic
unit
uninterrupted
by
physical
barriers.
Because
of
this
close
association
there
has
been
constant interaction
within
the
valley;
and
the
history
of
the
Sudan
is
inseparably
bound
up
with
that
of
Egypt.
All
those
who
have
governed
Egypt
-
whether
native
or
foreign
-
have
ex-
tended
their
political,
cultural,
religious,
economic,
and
racial
influence
into
the
Sudan.
In
this
way
the
Arabization
and
Islami-
zation
of
Egypt
(begun
in
the
seventh
century
AD)
has
resulted
in
a
synthesis
of
language and
culture
within
the
Nile Valley
as
far
south
as
the
Bahr
al'Arab.
In
our
own
century
the
key to
the
relationship
between
Egypt
and
the
Sudan
has
been
the
Nile
River itself.
With
the
introduc-
tion
of
modern engineering techniques,
it
became
possible
to
har-
ness
the
Nile
for
expansion
of
irrigation
and
flood
control.
This,
in
turn,
has
introduced
the
dual problems of
controlling
and
of
allocating
the
Nile
waters.
According
to
Mekki
Abbas,
a
noted
Sudanese
historian,
"the
control of
the
Nile in
Uganda,
Ethiopia,
and
the
Sudan,
and
the
free
use
of
its
waters
for irrigation
and
Associate
Professor,
Department
of
Political
Science,
University
of
Calgary;
author
of
Governments
and
Politics
of
the
Contemporary
Middle
East
(1970)
and
The
UAR
in
Africa:
Egypt's
Policy
under
Nasser
(forthcoming).
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