The Unpredictable Negotiator: A Look into Sadat’s Leadership

Mohamed Abdelaziz Shehab Eldin ()
Additional contact information
Mohamed Abdelaziz Shehab Eldin: RESOLVE Consulting

Chapter 14 in Negotiators who Changed the World, 2025, pp 275-291 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Anwar Sadat (1918–1981), Egypt’s third President, reshaped Middle Eastern politics through a series of bold, unpredictable decisions that culminated in the first Arab–Israeli peace treaty. Initially overshadowed by his charismatic predecessor Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sadat quietly consolidated power after Nasser’s death through his “Corrective Revolution,” removing rivals and affirming his leadership. Determined to regain Egypt’s occupied Sinai Peninsula, he launched the October 1973 War to reassert Egyptian sovereignty, employing the conflict as strategic leverage to draw Israel and the United States into serious negotiations. His unprecedented 1977 visit to Jerusalem and subsequent Camp David negotiations exemplified Sadat’s unorthodox yet effective approach to diplomacy: taking dramatic risks, reframing entrenched conflicts, and compelling adversaries to engage in dialogue. Despite earning him the Nobel Peace Prize, Sadat’s peace deal with Israel triggered outrage among various groups across the Arab world, leading to his regional isolation and, ultimately, his assassination by extremists. Sadat’s legacy endures as a master negotiator who fused pragmatism with daring symbolic gestures, and an unexpected influential leader who does not check all boxes of a typical leader’s journey. By redefining the rules of engagement, both on the battlefield and at the negotiation table, he set a precedent for future peace efforts, illustrating how visionary leadership and calculated risks can overturn decades of hostility.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:fuobcp:978-3-031-90367-0_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031903670

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-90367-0_14

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Future of Business and Finance from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().