On June 5th , 2017, the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs held a round table discussion about “Fifty Years of the 1967 War … Lessons and Experiences Learned”, with the aim of highlighting the internal and external causes and lessons learned. The challenges ahead, in the presence of Ambassador Dr. MounirZahran, Chair of the Council, and Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad Director of the Council, Dr. Ahmed Yousef Ahmed, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University, and Major General / Talaat Mousa, the strategic and military expert, along with a number of council members from ambassadors, experts and academics.
The participants reached a number of substantive points as follows:
– The 1967 war is actually rooted to the 56th war, which is rooted to the nationalization of the Suez Canal.
– The failure of the governance model, relying on the criterion of loyalty rather than the criterion of competence in the selection of commanders of the armed forces, as well as a conflict of decision-making which was leading to failure to develop a clear strategic vision, not to mention the lack of readiness of leaders at the time to lead the field of operations.
On the regional level, despite Egypt’s success in restoring the land and maintaining peace, all the territories occupied in 1967 have not been restored, as has the state of weakness, Arab division, the decline of Arab nationalism and the collapse of the nation state, and the emergence of new patterns of leadership of the regional system.
– The absence of accurate reading of changes in the global system, and rejection of any new ideas, including a new system for the Middle East without studying the elements and strengths, and loss of maneuverability.
Lessons learned
– Adopting new principles during war operations based mainly on adopting offensive, surprise and deception approaches, as well as organizing elements and members of the armed forces, defining their tasks, developing strategic plans and coordinating the decision-making process.
– The importance of the steadfastness of the Egyptian people, which was a major starting point in the reconstruction, and the need to rely on them in the face of current challenges.