Powerful friends

Surviving high-intensity warfare

It was the 19th century British prime minister Lord Palmerston who famously remarked that in international relations there are “no eternal allies … only interests”.

Palmerston’s hard-headed world view has particular relevance for small and medium nations that find themselves drawn into high-intensity warfare. The October 1973 war in the Middle East and the 1982 war in the Falklands illustrate the point.