Abstract

SUEZ: The Indispensable Ditch

A Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser drags his feet in what appears to be a semi-permanent Suez Canal crisis, more and more talk is heard about eliminating it as a vital waterway with fleets of supertankers and pipelines through non-Arab-bloc countries. On paper the ideas are convincing. Not only does by-passing Suez seem economically and militarily sound, but the emotional satisfaction of having Nasser wind up with a ditch through the desert that no one wants to use is attractive. The uncomfortable fact of the matter is that because of the fast-rising world demand for oil and the less urgent but still increasing level of international trade, the world needs Suez and will find it cheaper to pay almost any price to use the canal than to try to get along without it.