This chapter is set to investigate the quasi-alliance between the Soviet Union and Egypt in the early Sadat administration, 1971-1974. The Soviet-Egypt quasi-alliance was based on three factors – the international system, state, and decision-makers. From the perspective of the international system, since the US and Israel were the status quo powers, and the Soviet Union and Egypt were revisionist countries that aimed to challenge such an unfavorable power structure, Moscow and Cairo were forced to form a coalition. From the national level, the pursuit of common security instead of economic interests became the important factor promoting the Soviet- Egypt quasi-alliance. From the decision-making level, the Soviet leaders viewed Egypt as a bridgehead to expand their interests in the Middle East. Likewise, Sadat acknowledged that the Soviet Union was the main source for obtaining advanced weapons on the one hand, while on the other it was concerned that the Soviet Union could manipulate the Egyptian leadership and potentially interfere in internal affairs of the Sadat administration. In fact, the two governments’ elites established an asymmetrical quasi-alliance based on expediency and convenience, and hence such quasi-alliance was doomed to fall apart with the shuttle diplomacy of the US Secretary of State Kissinger in late 1973.

During the Cold War, alliance and partnership were the two main pillars of Soviet foreign security strategies, which were the most important means for Moscow to use Third World countries’ strategic resources from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, and from Africa to Southeast Asia. In the 1970s, to consolidate its quasi-alliance with target countries, the Soviet Union signed treaties of friendship and cooperation with Third World countries, such as India and Egypt in 1971, with Iraq in 1972 and with Vietnam in 1978. It is worth noting that India dismembered Pakistan at the end of 1971 after the signing of the Soviet-Indian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. Egypt launched an air attack against Israel in 1973 after the conclusion of the Soviet-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. Vietnam invaded Cambodia soon after it had entered into the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Moscow in 1978. The establishment of quasi-alliance seemingly prompted Soviet allies to choose war. What were the dynamics for the Soviet Union to build quasi-alliance with Third World countries? How was the efficacy? Why did the quasialliance terminate? This chapter will take the case of the Soviet-Egypt quasi-alliance in the early Sadat administration as an example to reveal the answers.