Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

=== State of the Cold War ===
{{See also|Cold War (1979–1985)}}
In the wider [[Cold War]], drastic changes were taking place in [[Southwestern Asia]] concurrent with the 1978–1979 upheavals in Afghanistan that changed the nature of the two superpowers. In February 1979, the [[Iranian Revolution]] ousted the American-backed [[Shah]] from Iran, losing the United States as one of its most powerful allies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/i-background.php|title=Understanding the Iran Contra Affairs|access-date=4 June 2014}}</ref> The United States then deployed twenty ships in the [[Persian Gulf]] and the [[Arabian Sea]] including two aircraft carriers, and there were constant threats of war between the [[Iran–United States relations|U.S. and Iran]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Jiri|last=Valenta|year=1980|title=From Prague to Kabul: The Soviet Style of Invasion}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>

American observers argued that the global balance of power had shifted to the Soviet Union following the emergence of several pro-Soviet regimes in the Third World in the latter half of the 1970s (such as in Nicaragua and Ethiopia), and the action in Afghanistan demonstrated the Soviet Union's expansionism.<ref name="nsaessay" />

March 1979 marked the signing of the U.S.-backed [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty|peace agreement between Israel and Egypt]]. The Soviet leadership saw the agreement as giving a major advantage to the United States. A Soviet newspaper stated that Egypt and Israel were now "[[Gendarme (historical)|gendarmes]] of [[the Pentagon]]". The Soviets viewed the treaty not only as a peace agreement between their erstwhile allies in Egypt and the US-supported Israelis but also as a military pact.<ref>{{cite book|first=Minton|last=Goldman|year=1984|title=Soviet Military Intervention in Afghanistan: Roots & Causes}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref> In addition, the US sold more than 5,000 [[List of missiles by nation#United States|missiles]] to [[Saudi Arabia]], and the USSR's previously strong relations with [[Iraq]] had recently soured, as in June 1978 it began entering into friendlier relations with the Western world and buying French and Italian-made weapons, though the vast majority still came from the Soviet Union, its Warsaw Pact satellites, and China.

The Soviet invasion has also been analyzed with the model of the [[resource curse]]. The 1979 [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]] in Iran saw a massive increase in the scarcity and price of oil, adding tens of billions of dollars to the Soviet economy, as it was the major source of revenue for the USSR that spent 40–60% of its entire federal budget (15% of the GDP) on the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://su90.ru/defence.html|title=Расходы на оборону и численность вооруженных сил СССР|translator-last=Defense spending and size of the Armed Forces of the USSR}}</ref> The oil boom may have overinflated national confidence, serving as a catalyst for the invasion. The [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] was temporarily relieved of financial constraints and sought to fulfill a long-term geopolitical goal of seizing the lead in the region between Central Asia and the Gulf.<ref name="Brown-2013">{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=James D. J.|date=1 January 2013|title=Oil Fueled? The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan|journal=Post-Soviet Affairs|volume=29|issue=1|pages=56–94|doi=10.1080/1060586X.2013.778543|issn=1060-586X|doi-access=free}}</ref>