Sadat’s African dilemma: Libya, Ethiopia, and the making of the Camp David Accords

Abstract

This article contends that the roots of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s 1977 decision to seek peace with Israel, eventually leading to the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, can be found in events on or near Egypt’s borders in Africa and larger Cold War politics. It therefore moves beyond the focus by many scholars on bilateral Egyptian-Israeli relations and the US-centric role in the peace process and instead examines how the breakdown in Egyptian-Libyan relations, the Ethiopian Revolution, and Soviet penetration of the African continent compelled Sadat to make peace with Israel.