Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia

by

Mohammed Nuruzzaman

• LAST REVIEWED: 11 January 2021
• LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0259

Introduction

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a major actor in Middle Eastern as well as global politics. Founded in 1932 by King Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, commonly known as Ibn Saud, the kingdom rests on an alliance between the Al Saud royal family and the followers of 18th-century Islamic revivalist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The strategic and geo-economic significance of the kingdom originates from its location and possession of huge oil resources. It borders the world’s two immensely significant strategic sea trade routes—the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, boasts of being the world’s largest oil exporter, and is home to Islam’s two holiest sites—Mecca and Medina. Though not a militarily significant power, the kingdom’s vast oil wealth has gradually and greatly elevated its status as an influential global economic and financial power. Currently, it is the world’s seventeenth largest economy ($1.774 trillion, 2017 estimate based on purchasing power parity, or PPP) and a member of the elite G20 club of world economic powers. The economic good fortune notwithstanding, the Saudis have traditionally depended on the United States, especially after World War II, for security guarantees and pursued a foreign policy of restraint guided by preferences for soft power tools like mediation in regional conflicts, financial aid and investments, and diplomatic influence. Relations with the United States, mostly smooth but occasionally rocky (for example, the 1973 Saudi-led oil embargo on the West and the 9/11 attacks), has remained the cornerstone of Saudi foreign policy. A series of recent developments, most notably the rise of regional rival Iran following the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, the contagious effects of Arab pro-democracy movements, and the proclamation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the summer of 2014 forced a major overhaul in Saudi foreign policy. A fundamental shift from the traditional policy of restraint to a proactive foreign policy took root from the early 2010s. King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz sent troops to Bahrain in March 2011 to stifle the Shiʿa -led pro-democracy movements; incumbent King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz, soon after ascending the throne in January 2015, launched a massive air attack on Yemen to punish the allegedly pro-Iran Houthi rebels, and doubled down financial and military support for the pro-Saudi rebel groups fighting against the Iran- and Russia-backed Bashar Al-Assad government in Syria. The kingdom has justified this proactive foreign policy approach as a necessary response to force Shiʿa powerhouse Iran to scale back its presence in Arab countries and to keep Iranian power under check. Lately, the kingdom is pursuing policies to court Israel to jointly square off with their common enemy Iran and weaken pro-Iran Lebanese militia group Hezbollah’s military capabilities.

General Overviews

Since 1932 Saudi foreign policy has sought to ensure two overriding objectives: protection from external threats, and survival of the Al Saud regime. The two objectives have largely originated from the Al Saud’s past historical experiences. Originally established in the mid-18th century by Muhammad ibn Saud, the emir of Darʾiyyah, a small oasis town in the central Saudi province of Najd, the Al Saud dynastic rule collapsed two times in the 19th century—first at the hands of the Ottomans in 1818 and the second time in 1887 at the hands of the emir of the Shammar Muhammad ibn Rashid (the Al Rashid rulers were based in the north-western Saudi city of Haʾil). Under Ibn Saud’s leadership, the Al Saud regime, once it established full control over most parts of the Arabian Peninsula, especially after conquering the western province of Hijaz in early 1926, set out to preserve the Arabian, tribe-based self-identity of the kingdom and to dispel its heightened sense of internal and external insecurities. The struggle for security from domestic and external threats has influenced Saudi foreign policy to develop multiple dimensions and try multiple strategies. This section provides a general historical overview of the creation of the kingdom and its foreign policy. This is followed by brief but critical discussions on a number of foreign policy aspects, including Saudi foreign policy in the formative years, oil and foreign policy, Saudi regional policy and rivalry with Iran, alliance-making and Saudi search for security, Saudi-Asia connections, Saudi reactions to the Arab Spring, Islam and ulama in Saudi foreign policy, and domestic power centers and Saudi foreign policymaking. To begin with, Al-Rasheed 2010 and Vassiliev 1998 provide good historical accounts of the formation of Saudi Arabia. Aarts and Nonneman 2005 is an insightful account on Saudi domestic and foreign policies. Gause 2014, Nonneman 2005, Safran 1985, and Salamah 1980 account for general Saudi foreign policy determinants, trends, and the quest for security. Partrick 2016 provides a general overview of Saudi foreign policy in the contemporary context, while Al-Rasheed 2008 reports on Saudi Arabia’s contemporary expansionist drive.

• Aarts, Paul, and Gerd Nonneman, eds. Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs. New York: New York University Press, 2005.

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  This edited book presents insightful analyses on Saudi domestic politics, economic reforms, Islamist threats, and the kingdom’s changing foreign policy in a changing world.

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• Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A History of Saudi Arabia. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511993510Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Al-Rasheed lucidly details the history of the Al Saud rulers since 1744 as well as their territorial conquests and challenges to state formation and power consolidation in historical perspectives.

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• Al-Rasheed, Madawi, eds. Kingdom Without Borders: Saudi Arabia’s Political, Religious, and Media Frontiers. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

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  Contributors explore the political, religious, and media power that drives Saudi Arabia’s contemporary expansionist policies across the Middle East and beyond, and investigates such expansionism focusing on the realms of local politics, religion, and media genres.

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• Gause, F. Gregory, III. “The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia.” In The Foreign Policies of Middle East States. Edited by Raymond Hinnebusch and Anoushiravan Ehteshami, 185–206. London and Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2014

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  Gause provides a comprehensive analysis on Saudi foreign policy with a particular focus on foreign policy determinants at the global, regional, and Arabian Peninsula levels.

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• Nonneman, Gerd. “Determinants and Patterns of Saudi Foreign Policy: ‘Omnibalancing’ and ‘Relative Autonomy’ in Multiple Environments.” In Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs. Edited by Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman, 315–351. New York: New York University Press, 2005.

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  Nonneman, while examining the determinants of and patterns in Saudi foreign policy, employs the concept of what he calls “omnibalancing” to explain how the Saudi regime, in the face of threats and needs, manages to exercise relative foreign policy autonomy from internal and external structures and actors.

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• Partrick, Neil, eds. Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy: Conflict and Cooperation in Uncertain Times. London: I.B. Tauris, 2016.

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  A good anthology that probes the kingdom’s engagement with the external world, its internal and external challenges, particularly the internal incapacity of the Saudi state and regional rival Iran’s efforts to go nuclear as crucial factors that shape Saudi foreign policy.

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• Safran, Nadav. Saudi Arabia: The Ceaseless Quest for Security. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

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  This book offers a penetrating analysis on how the interplay of elite politics, inter-Arab rivalries and alignments, wars and revolution in the Persian Gulf area, Arab-Israel conflict and US role in the Middle East shaped Saudi security preoccupation and policy from 1932 up to the early 1980s.

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• Salamah, Ghassan. Al-Siyasa al-kharijiyya al-sa’udiyya munkh ‘am 1945. Beirut: Maʾhad al-Inmai al-Arabi, 1980.

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  Salamah examines Saudi foreign policy goals and developments since 1945 from an Arab perspective. Translated as “Saudi foreign policy since 1945.”

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• Vassiliev, Alexi. The History of Saudi Arabia. London: Saqi, 1998.

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  Vassiliev provides a rich documents-based historical account of Saudi Arabia’s development as a state over the past two hundred years.

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Saudi Foreign Policy in the Formative Years (1902–1953)

Ibn Saud, as the founder of the kingdom, set out the general tone and directions of Saudi foreign policy. Aware of the importance of maintaining and balancing relations with regional and external powers, he soon felt the need for an institutional set-up to deal with foreign policy challenges. The ministry of foreign affairs was created in 1930, two years before the formal proclamation of the kingdom, and the ministry of finance in 1932. There were hardly any trained Saudi diplomats to run the ministry of foreign affairs, however. That forced the newly created kingdom to recruit diplomats from other Arab states. At the policy level, Ibn Saud, faced with the intense pressures of consolidating his new kingdom, attempted to pursue a foreign policy approach that initially aligned itself with the British but later made a clear shift toward the United States after the historic meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943. Al-Kahtani 2004 investigates the various dimensions of Ibn Saud’s foreign policy. Al-Enazy 2009 examines how Britain co-opted Ibn Saud in his imperial policy framework in the Middle East, while Barr 2018 reveals how the United States gradually established control over the Middle East region. Goldberg 1986 traces the roots of Saudi foreign policy covering the period from 1902 to 1918. Keating 2005 reflects on British policy approach to the oil kingdom.

• Al-Enazy, Askar H. The Creation of Saudi Arabia: Ibn Saud and British Imperial Policy, 1914–1927. London: Routledge, 2009.

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  Al-Enazy contradicts the prevalent interpretations that Wahhabism propelled King Abd al-Aziz’s territorial conquests between 1915 and 1926 and instead argues that Saudi territorial expansion occurred after Britain integrated Abd al-Aziz’s ambitions in its imperial policy system to prolong British occupation of Arab lands and implement the Balfour Declaration to create Israel.

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• Al-Kahtani, Mohammad Zaid. The Foreign Policy of King Abdulaziz (1927–1853): A Study in the International Relations of an Emerging State. PhD diss., University of Leeds, 2004.

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  A comprehensive survey of King Abd al-Aziz’s foreign policy covering a wide range of theoretical and practical issue areas, including foreign policy formulation and implementation problems, policies toward the Arab world, and relations with Britain after the 1927 Treaty of Jeddah, and the United States after World War II.

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• Barr, James. Lords of the Desert: The Battle Between the United States and Great Britain for Supremacy in the Middle East. New York: Basic Books, 2018.

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  A rich archive-based historical research on post–World War II British-American competition for Saudi Arabia’s oil and control over the Suez Canal and how America forced Great Britain out of the Middle East region.

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• Goldberg, Jacob. The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia: The Formative Years, 1902–1918. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.

  DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674281844Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An insightful study on early Saudi foreign policy that argues that Ibn Saud pursued a realpolitik approach to play off the Ottomans against the British Empire in an attempt not to propagate Wahhabism but to re-establish the House of Saud in Arabia and the restoration of its former dynastic dominion.

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• Keating, Aileen. Mirage: Power, Politics, and the Hidden History of Arabian Oil. New York: Prometheus Books, 2005.

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  Keating provides an authoritative narrative on the competitive power grabs between Western oil executives in the Arabian Peninsula and reveals how the British raj (in India) made profits from Arab oil resources after World War I while denying the Gulf sheikhdoms their independence.

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Oil Economy, Regime Consolidation, and Foreign Policy

Oil, first extracted on a commercial basis in 1938, proved a highly effective policy instrument to consolidate the Al Saud regime in particular and the newly established kingdom of Saudi Arabia in general. For Ibn Saud, oil was a godsend to hold together the diverse groups within the kingdom and to maneuver between the British and the Americans. His “oil for security deal”, struck with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1943, guaranteed Saudi security in exchange for the free flow of Saudi oil to the West. Internally, the Al Saud regime managed to strictly control oil revenues, keeping domestic private sector actors off oil business, to promote regime stability. State oil monopoly, especially by late 1988 when Saudi Arabia took full control of ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company), allowed the Al Saud rulers more power and leverage to deal with international actors and thus preserve state independence. Simultaneously, deep US involvement in Saudi oil industries and business, since 1938, further compelled it to maintain a big stake in Saudi oil business and develop complex political, economic, and military relations with the Al Saud regime. Anderson 2016 examines early Saudi-US relations driven by oil interests. Miller 2017 and Vitalis 2009 reflect on America’s compelling needs to get involved in Saudi oil, contributing to Al Saud regime stability. Jungers 2014 is a revealing inside account of ARAMCO. Wald 2018 is a good read on the Saudi royal family’s grip on oil business aimed at ensuring regime survival. Abir 1988 is a fascinating read on the impact of oil dollar-funded modernization on royal family power.

• Abir, Mordechai. Saudi Arabia in the Oil Era: Regime and Elites; Conflict and Collaboration. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988.

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  Abir examines the challenges the Saudi middle class, an outcome of social transformation of the past few decades, to the monopoly of power of the Al Saud rulers, their involvements in oil business and control over foreign policy.

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• Anderson, Irvine H. Aramco, the United States, and Saudi Arabia: A Study of the Dynamics of Foreign Oil Policy, 1933–1950. Reprint. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.

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  This book is a good analysis on early Saudi-US relations from 1933 to 1950 in light of America’s foreign oil policy and the evolving complex relationships between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Originally published in 1981.

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• Jungers, Frank. The Caravan Goes On: How Aramco and Saudi Arabia Grew Up Together. Newport, Isle of Wight, UK: Medina, 2014.

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  Jungers, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Aramco, vividly depicts major developments concerning the oil company and especially highlights the transfer of Aramco’s ownership from four American oil majors to the Saudi government.

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• Miller, Aaron David. Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy. Reprint. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

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  Miller identifies the strategic factors of oil kingdom Saudi Arabia’s growing importance in the Middle East and America’s shrinking oil reserves in the post-war period that critically contributed to closer Saudi-US ties. Originally published in 1980.

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• Vitalis, Robert. America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier. London: Verso, 2009.

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  A groundbreaking study that debunks many myths concerning ARAMCO and reveals that the United States went to Saudi Arabia and developed special ties with the Al Saud regime simply to consolidate oil interests. Originally published by Stanford University Press in 2007.

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• Wald, Ellen R. Saudi, Inc.: The Arabian Kingdom’s Pursuit of Profit and Power. New York: Pegasus Books, 2018.

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  An exposition of how the Al Saud royal family has managed the highly profitable giant oil company ARAMCO to promote their influence and to maintain their power through the introduction of harsh Islamic justice system and the spread of their traditional ideology of Wahhabism.

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Saudi-US Relations

There is no denying that oil drew the United States closer to Saudi Arabia and their bilateral relationship gradually unfolded to cover all areas ranging from economic to political, trade, military, and strategic. A close strategic ally during the entire Cold War period, the Saudis have cooperated and often funded America’s efforts to contain global communist threats and to check their common rival Iran. The relationship was never totally smooth, however. Affected by multiple crises, the Saudi-US relations sustained major paradigmatic shifts occasionally—the shift from the early “oil for security” paradigm to a near breakdown of relationships over the 1973 oil embargo to a robust strategic partnership of the 1990s, developed over the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Serious tensions again destabilized their relations in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, executed by Osama bin Laden and his Saudi accomplices, and the paradigm shifted to collaboration for a joint fight against terrorism. During the last years of President Barack Obama’s presidency, Saudi-US relations cooled down considerably, due to America’s détente with Iran culminating in the July 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Saudi Arabia and Israel vehemently opposed. President Donald Trump’s vitriolic anti-Iran stance and his scrapping of the nuclear deal in May 2018 greatly revitalized Saudi relations with the United States. The close Saudi-US relations are often interpreted as a one-sided relationship, a situation of classical dependence where the Al Saud regime, with little autonomy to make foreign policy choices, survives on US political, diplomatic, and security support. The relationship is also interpreted as a case of asymmetric interdependence, where the Saudis follow the US lead but also retain some degree of autonomy to influence global affairs, such as global oil policy formulation and pricing. Bronson 2006 explains the dark side of Saudi-US relations. Gause 2011 reviews Saudi-US relations in a changed Middle East context. Hart 1998 takes a deep look at the Saudi-US security relationship. Long 1985 is an in-depth study on the first few decades of Saudi-US relations. Riedel 2017 digs into the so-called “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Lippman 2004 tells the story of how America has built modern Saudi Arabia but became an enemy of al-Qaeda. Halliday 2001 refers to the dependency relationship between the United States and the Arabian Peninsula states.

• Bronson, Rachel. Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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  Bronson, drawing on archival material and declassified documents, examines the post-9/11 attacks tensions that have spoiled the otherwise mostly smooth Saudi-US relations.

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• Gause, F. Gregory, III. Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East. Council Special Report No. 63. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2011.

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  A useful review of Saudi-US relations that recommends the United States recast its relations with Riyadh purely based on transactional interests.

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• Halliday, Fred. Arabia without Sultans. London: Saqi Books, 2001.

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  Halliday situates the oil-based political economy of Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula states in the global context of US-led Western postcolonial strategy that has trapped Arabia in a dependency relationship with the West.

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• Hart, Parker T. Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

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  Hart’s book, a first-hand account on Saudi-US security partnership, examines the post-1991 enduring security relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States which, despite Saudi religious and political dilemmas, exists until today.

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• Lippman, Thomas W. Inside the Mirage: America’s Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004.

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  Terming Saudi-US relations “the ultimate marriage of convenience” Lippman chronicles America’s efforts to modernize the desert kingdom and explores future obstacles to their bilateral relationships.

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• Long, David E. The United States and Saudi Arabia: Ambivalent Allies. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985.

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  Long’s book is a short but authoritative overview of Saudi-US political, economic, oil, and military relations from the founding of the kingdom up to 1985.

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• Riedel, Bruce. Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States since FDR. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2017.

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  An insightful insider account of Saudi-US relations that covers the periods of different Saudi kings and American presidents, and reports their differences over Israel and the new tensions over the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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Saudi Regional Goals and Rivalry with Iran

Close Saudi-US relations have generally influenced Saudi foreign policy tone and goals in the Persian Gulf area and the Middle East region. As an oil superpower, Saudi Arabia has historically sought to claim the leadership role in the Arab world and to prevent the rise of any Arab or non-Arab power to claim a pre-eminent position in the Middle East. Another major regional goal has been the prevention of political threats—Islamic jihadists, Pan Arab nationalism, Arab Baathism, or moderate Islamists (for example, Muslim Brotherhood) that challenge the legitimacy and security of the Al Saud rulers. In the Gulf neighborhood, the kingdom has successfully persuaded the smaller sheikhdoms and emirates to create a common bulwark against Iranian threats. The Saudis, on the whole, consider the Arabian Peninsula their “near abroad” and are determined to deny any regional or extra-regional power to have a foothold in the peninsula. Such Saudi foreign policy goals have pitted it against Iran, a great aspirant for regional dominant power status. The fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in 2003 locked the two rivals in dangerous competitions across the region (in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen) for regional pre-eminence, power, and influence. What irks the Iranians most is Saudi collaboration with their principal post-1979 nemesis the United States to marginalize Iranian influence throughout the region. The Saudi-US alliance, with support from Israel, has, in turn, contributed to the consolidation of the Iran-led “axis of resistance” comprising Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. Antonopoulos and Cottle 2017 accounts for Saudi Arabia’s competition against Iran in Syria. Bahgat, et al. 2017 presents a comprehensive analysis on Iran’s relations with its Arab neighbors. Barnett and Gause 1998 highlights Saudi Arabia’s assertive role in the Arabian Peninsula. Ehteshami 2009 analyzes how Iran’s rise has shaken the power structure in the Middle East. Hill 2017 explores the reasons behind Saudi Arabia’s costly war on Yemen. Joint Forces Staff College 2015 emphasizes Saudi-US cooperation to contain Iranian power. Nuruzzaman 2012 analyzes the conflicts between Iran and the Gulf Arab states. Alsultan and Saeid 2017 assess the internal and external factors responsible for conflicts and tensions in Iran-Saudi relations, while Wehrey, et al. 2009 provides a general overview of Iran-Saudi relations since 2003.

• Alsultan, Fahad M., and Pedram Saeid. The Development of Saudi-Iranian Relations since the 1990s: Between Conflict and Accommodation. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.

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  This book, a joint collaboration between two Saudi and Iranian scholars, focuses on domestic and external factors and draws on multi-causal explanations to capture the complexities in Iran-Saudi relations.

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• Antonopoulos, Paul, and Drew Cottle. Syria: The Hegemonic Flashpoint between Iran and Saudi Arabia. New Delhi: Vij Books India, 2017.

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  Antonopoulos and Cottle examine the war in Syria between the US-Saudi-Israel alliance and the Iran-led “axis of resistance” (with Russian support) in the context of imperialistic designs for regional hegemony and control over resources.

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• Bahgat, Gawdat, Anoushiravan Ehteshami, and Neil Quilliam, eds. Security and Bilateral Issues Between Iran and Its Arab Neighbors. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

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  This edited volume delves into a comprehensive and well-documented analysis of the complex relationships between Iran and its Arab neighbors, especially from the Arab states’ individual approaches and policies toward Iran.

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• Barnett, Michael, and F. Gregory Gause III. “Caravans in Opposite Directions: Society, State, and the Development of Community in the Gulf Cooperation Council.” In Security Communities. Edited by Immanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, 161–197. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511598661.005Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A good discussion on how Saudi Arabia successfully capitalized on post-1979 Iranian revolutionary threats and the spillover effects of the Iraq-Iran war (1980–1988) to bring the otherwise suspicious smaller Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states under its leadership role.

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• Ehteshami, Anoushiravan. “The Middle East’s New Power Dynamics.” Current History 108.772 (2009): 395.

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  Ehteshami makes the point that Iran’s post-2003 rise rang alarm bells in core Arab states as well as in Israel and Turkey creating fresh security concerns in the Middle East.

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• Hill, Ginny. Yemen Endures: Civil War, Saudi Adventurism and the Future of Arabia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

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  Hill’s book reveals the reasons behind Saudi Arabia’s costly war to punish and eliminate the allegedly pro-Iran Houthi rebels, a war that has shattered the Saudi belief that victory could be achieved overnight.

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• Joint Forces Staff College. Two Independent Pillars of Policy: The Saudi and American Approaches to Iran. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2015.

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  This monograph provides an American military perspective on Iran-Saudi competitions and examines a two pillars strategy, with Saudi Arabia at the Middle East regional level and the United States at the global level, to curtail Iran’s power and influence.

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• Nuruzzaman, Mohammed. “Conflicts between Iran and the Gulf Arab States: An Economic Evaluation.” Strategic Analysis 36.4 (2012): 542–553.

  DOI: 10.1080/09700161.2012.689512Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Nuruzzaman analyzes a wide range of ideational, political, and territorial conflicts in Iran-Gulf Arab relations and their impact on cross-Gulf economic relations.

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• Wehrey, Frederic, Theodore W. Karasik, Alireza Nader, Jeremy Ghez, Lydia Honsell, and Robert A. Guffey. Saudi-Iranian Relations since the Fall of Saddam: Rivalry, Cooperation, and Implications for U.S. Policy. Santa Monica: RAND, 2009.

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  Wehrey and his contributors map out major post-2003 political shifts in the Middle East affected by intensified Iran-Saudi conflicts and the implications of the shifts for US Mideast policy.

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Alliance Making and the Saudi Search for Security

A major impact of Iran-Saudi rivalry, at least in the post-1979 context, has been the recasting of Saudi security policies and strategies. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was created in 1981 primarily to fend off revolutionary threats from Iran. Until today, Iran remains a big security concern for the Saudis, as they perceive or possibly believe that an increase in Iran’s economic and military power will dilute their regional influence. The kingdom’s military weakness to keep Iran under check has forced it to look for external allies, particularly the United States. A deep look at Saudi Arabia’s sources of threat, however, confirms that the kingdom’s threat perceptions and threat structure were never fixed but changed more often than not. The Hashemite rulers, who controlled Hijaz until their defeat by Ibn Saud in 1926 and who founded their new power centers in Iraq and Jordan, were viewed as threats until the end of 1950s; Jamal Abdel Nasser’s brand of Arab nationalism was perceived as a major source of danger in the 1950s and 1960s; similarly, the Arab Baathists in Iraq and Syria were seen as possible threats in the 1960s and 1970s. The Muslim Brotherhood became a big ideological concern from the 1990s onward. Lately, Iran has emerged as the foremost source of threats by replacing most previous sources of threats. The Iranian nuclear program particularly worries the Saudis. Accordingly, in the last decade or so, the Saudis have more or less executed a two-pronged regional policy to augment their sense of security against Iran and to assert their regional dominance: purchases of Euro-American weapons and military technologies worth billions of dollars, and formation of military alliances with Sunni Arab and Muslim states. Saudi Arabia is currently the world’s second largest arms importer after India. In December 2015, the kingdom declared the formation of a thirty-four-nation Islamic military alliance to contain Iran and its regional allies. Cigar 2016 elaborates Saudi perceptions of nuclear threats. Cordesman 2009 is so far the most exhaustive study on Saudi national security. Hussein 2012 discusses Saudi alliance behavior with the West. Kamrava 2018 accounts for security volatility in the Persian Gulf region affecting Saudi national security policy. Miglietta 2002 looks at US alliance relationships with Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia from an American perspective. Peterson 2002 is a thorough analysis of internal and external security challenges to Saudi Arabia. Ulrichsen 2017 analyzes post-Arab Spring security dynamics in the Persian Gulf region.

• Cigar, Norman. Saudi Arabia and Nuclear Weapons: How Do Countries Think about the Nuclear Bomb? London and New York: Routledge, 2016.

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  Using an “inside out” approach Cigar analyzes Saudi national interests in view of regional nuclear threats and ties the Saudi decision to go or not to go nuclear to Iran’s nuclear decision.

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• Cordesman, Anthony H. Saudi Arabia: National Security in a Troubled Region. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.

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  An exhaustive account of Saudi national security from economic, political, and strategic perspectives that highlights how the kingdom balances relations with regional states and external partners.

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• Hussein, Abdulrahman A. So History Doesn’t Forget: Alliances Behavior in Foreign Policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1979–1990. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2012.

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  A good analysis on Saudi Arabia’s perceived or real threats emanating from expansionist and revolutionary regimes in the Persian Gulf area, and the kingdom’s pursuit of a balance of power policy, often by maintaining an alliance relationship with the United States.

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• Kamrava, Mehran. Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.

  DOI: 10.7591/9781501720369Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Kamrava critically examines the regional dynamics contributing to security volatility in the Persian Gulf, and identifies the neglect of human security and Saudi excessive reliance on the United States to face off with Iran, among other factors, as the root causes of conflicts and tensions in the region.

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• Miglietta, John P. American Alliance Policy in the Middle East, 1945–1992: Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. New York: Lexington Books, 2002.

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  This book reveals how the fear of global communism drove America down the road to commit enormous resources to defend the Middle East, while nurturing despotic regimes that often destabilized the region.

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• Peterson, John. Saudi Arabia and the Illusion of Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Peterson underscores the need for Saudi Arabia to include, rather than exclude at Western insistence, regional states Iran and Iraq in its search for security, while cementing a cooperative relationship with the United States.

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• Ulrichsen, Kristian Coates, ed. The Changing Security Dynamics of the Persian Gulf. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

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  Provides insightful analyses on the post-Arab Spring security vulnerabilities of the Gulf Arab states and their responses to such security vulnerabilities.

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Building Linkages to Asia

Despite its traditional pro-US foreign policy postures and preoccupation with Iranian threats, Saudi Arabia has sought to cultivate strong ties with Asian powers as well as Russia. The objectives might have been to look for alternative allies and diversify Saudi dependence away from the United States. Back in 2006 King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz visited China and India to find an Asian political alternative to the United States. The incumbent King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz made a month-long tour of Asia in March 2018 to strengthen political and business relationships with China, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. A special objective of King Salman’s tour of Asia was to firmly retain the kingdom’s position as the number one oil supplier to the world’s largest consumer region. Effective relationships with Asian powers are also expected to better execute the Saudi strategic plan “Vision 2030.” In brief, Saudi Arabia’s big opening to Asia aims to bolster the Saudi position in global diplomacy and economy. The Asian powers, particularly China, India, and Japan are also rushing to the kingdom and other Gulf Arab states to reap economic benefits and advantages under the ever-unfolding complex processes of globalization. This has been the case with Russia’s efforts to approach Saudi Arabia, despite the former’s anti-Saudi role in Syria. Al-Tamimi 2014 provides a comprehensive study of Sino-Saudi relations. Fulton 2019 is an insightful discussion on China-Gulf relations. Makio 2015 is a Japanese perspective on Saudi-East Asia relations. Scobell, et al. 2016 takes a closer look at China’s Middle East strategy in general, while Yetiv and Oscarsson 2018 maps out hegemonic competitions in the Persian Gulf region. Primakov 2009 reveals untold stories behind Russia-Middle East relations. Suchkov 2016 reflects on recent factors behind Saudi-Russia rapprochement. Pradhan 2013 takes a look at how Saudi-India relations have expanded over the past years, and Ward 1992 explains Saudi-India relations as anything but symmetrical.

• Al-Tamimi, Naser M. China–Saudi Arabia Relations, 1990–2012: Marriage of Convenience or Strategic Alliance? London: Routledge, 2014.

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  An investigation of the mutual interests and motives driving China–Saudi Arabia strategic partnership and the implications the partnership creates for US policy in the Middle East.

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• Fulton, Jonathan. China’s Relations with the Gulf Monarchies. London and New York: Routledge, 2019.

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  Underpinned by neoclassical realism, Fulton’s book is a rich account of the evolving patterns and growing interdependence between China and the Gulf Arab monarchies, with an emphasis on Sino-Saudi relations.

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• Makio, Yamada. Beyond Oil: The Political Economy of Saudi-East Asian Industrial Relations, 1953-2013. PhD diss., Oxford University, 2015.

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  A good analysis on Saudi-East Asia relations with a focus on Saudi policies of industrialization and processes of technology acquisitions from Japan and Taiwan as well as mutual interests involved in the two-way relationships.

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• Pradhan, Prasanta Kumar. “India’s Relationship with Saudi Arabia: Forging a Strategic Partnership.” Strategic Analysis 37.2 (2013): 231–241.

  DOI: 10.1080/09700161.2012.755773Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines how oil-based Indo-Saudi relationship has expanded to include security and strategic issues over the past years and presents the case for a broader strategic partnership between the two countries.

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• Primakov, Yevgeny. Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present. Translated by Paul Gould. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

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  A rich source of information and insights, Primakov’s book details Russian views and perspectives from behind-the-scene, high-stakes diplomacy and major developments taking place in the Middle East from the Cold War to the early 21st century.

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• Scobell, Andrew, Alireza Nader, and Arroyo Center. China in the Middle East: The Wary Dragon. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2016.

  DOI: 10.7249/RR1229Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A close examination of China’s Middle East strategy, in relation to two of the region’s key powers—Iran and Saudi Arabia.

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• Suchkov, Maxim. “Contemporary Russia-Saudi Relations: Building a Bridge of Cooperation over the Abyss of Discrepancies.” Iran and the Caucasus 20.2 (2016): 237–251.

  DOI: 10.1163/1573384X-20160208Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Suchkov takes a close look at the recent political and strategic factors pushing a fresh start in Saudi-Russian relations.

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• Ward, Richard E. India’s Pro-Arab Policy: A Study in Continuity. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishers, 1992.

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  A good analysis of the politico-economic and strategic factors shaping India’s traditionally pro-Arab policy from the 1920s to the 1991 Gulf War, and depicts Arab-India relations as asymmetrical relations.

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• Yetiv, Steve A., and Katerina Oscarsson. Challenged Hegemony: The United States, China, and Russia in the Persian Gulf. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018.

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  An insightful comparative analysis of American, Chinese, and Russian relative power capabilities ending up with the conclusion that US power has grown rather than declined in the Middle East, despite increasing Chinese and Russian presence in the region.

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Arab Spring and Saudi Foreign Policy

If Saudi foreign policy has developed a general pattern of continuity (in terms of restraints and a reactive approach) from 1932 to 2010, then Arab Spring has definitely shattered that policy of continuity. In the face of violent Arab Spring developments, such as regime change, civil war, and the spread of sectarian violence across the Middle East, Saudi foreign policy developed two interrelated dimensions: firstly, the Saudis chose a counterrevolutionary policy to suppress the pro-democracy forces; and, secondly, they took an open anti-Iran stance to challenge and stop Iran’s encroachments into the Arab world under the shadow of the Arab pro-democracy movements. International affairs analysts as well as the global press dubbed this new foreign policy approach as Saudi “muscular” foreign policy. Both strategic and geo-economic factors have undergirded this “muscular” foreign policy, which in the course of the past several years has produced unexpected consequences for the kingdom. Aarts and Roelants 2015 examines the coming internal dangers in Saudi Arabia. Al-Mutairi 2017 discusses the shift from reactive to pro-active stance in Saudi foreign policy. Al Tamamy 2012 is a Saudi perspective on the strategic consequences of the Arab Spring for the kingdom. Al-Rasheed 2018 is a useful read on multiple challenges plaguing the rule of King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz (2015–). Bastaoros 2015 outlines the general but contradictory Saudi reactions to Arab Spring events. Ennis and Momani 2013 presents a comparative analysis on Saudi and Turkish foreign policy strategies toward the Arab Spring. Kamrava 2012 analyzes how Saudi counterrevolutionary measures sought to bolster the kingdom’s influence and image, while Steinberg 2014 looks at the Saudi twin-track foreign policy approach spurred by the Arab Spring. Nuruzzaman 2013 probes the economic interests behind Saudi intervention in Bahrain.

• Aarts, Paul, and Carolien Roelants. Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Peril. Translated by Donald Gardner. London: C. Hurst, 2015.

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  Aarts and Roelants present an insightful analysis on Saudi Arabia’s financial muscle and Wahhabi clerical support that enabled the kingdom to weather through the Arab Spring rebellions domestically and regionally but casts doubt whether the world’s largest oil exporter can survive the future dangers lurking from within its domestic socioeconomic and political order. Originally published in Dutch.

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• Al-Mutairi, Khalid. “A History of Saudi Foreign Policy: From reaction to proactivity”. PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, 2017.

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  This doctoral dissertation investigates the recent fundamental shift in Saudi foreign policy from restraints to a proactive policy of deterrence, with a heavy reliance on military force.

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• Al-Rasheed, Madawi, ed. Salman’s Legacy: Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

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  Al-Rasheed and her contributors critically assess the domestic and international challenges ranging from leadership succession to regional and global crises Saudi Arabia is facing under King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz and offer useful historical and contemporary insights into the various challenges.

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• Al Tamamy, Saud Mousaed. “Saudi Arabia and the Arab Spring: Opportunities and Challenges of Security.” Journal of Arabian Studies 2.2 (2012): 143–156.

  DOI: 10.1080/21534764.2012.734117Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Al Tamamy examines the strategic consequences of the Arab Spring for Saudi Arabia and the effect of institutionalized Saudi foreign policy decision-making that consolidated Saudi influence in the Arab world and the Middle East.

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• Bastaoros, Youssef Tareq. “The Saudi Reactions to the Arab Revolts: The Paradoxical Saudi Policy towards the Arab Spring.” MA thesis, The American University in Cairo, 2015.

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  Terming Saudi reactions to the Arab Spring events as contradictory, Bastaoros applies the neoclassical realist approach to examine Saudi foreign policy behavior and responses to the challenges and threats created by the Arab Spring.

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• Ennis, Crystal A., and Bessma Momani. “Shaping the Middle East in the Midst of the Arab Uprisings: Turkish and Saudi Foreign Policy Strategies.” Third World Quarterly 34.6 (2013): 1127–1144.

  DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.802503Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Ennis and Momani examine the Saudi and Turkish foreign policy strategies toward the Arab Spring—their motivations, interests, and involvements from a comparative perspective and offer insights into the foreign policy purposes and methods of the two emerging Middle Eastern states.

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• Kamrava, Mehran. “The Arab Spring and the Saudi-Led Counterrevolution.” Orbis 56.1 (2012): 96–104.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.orbis.2011.10.011Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Presents the argument that though the Arab Spring has further undercut the already impaired Arab state system, Saudi Arabia and her Persian Gulf partners have used the Arab rebellions to promote their regional and global influence.

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• Nuruzzaman, Mohammed. “Politics, Economics and Saudi Military Intervention in Bahrain.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 43.2 (2013): 363–378.

  DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2012.759406Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article digs into the underlying causes of the March 2011 Saudi intervention in Bahrain and contends that the Saudi decision to intervene in Bahrain was no less influenced by economic factors than political and strategic calculations.

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• Steinberg, Guido. Leading the Counter-revolution: Saudi Arabia and Arab Spring. SWP Research Paper No. 7/2014. Berlin: SWP, 2014.

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  Steinberg elaborates the Saudi twin-track approach to the Arab Spring to check Iranian hegemony in the Middle East—bolstering the pro-status quo Arab monarchies and allied regimes, and the policy of intervention in neighboring Arab states to deny the Shiʿas political power or unseat them from power.

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Islam in Saudi Foreign Policy

Alongside the complex issues of relationships with external powers, threats to national, and domestic security, ideational factors have had their influence on Saudi foreign policy. The kingdom is an Islamic state and well-founded on a religious bond sealed by Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who sought a return to puritanical Islamic faith by purging Islam of un-Islamic practices. The descendants and followers of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, known as Al al-Shaykh, oversee the Saudi educational, judicial, and religious systems. The domestic assertion of Islam, in addition to being home to Islam’s two holiest sites of Mecca and Medina, has enabled the kingdom to claim a leadership role in the Muslim world. The Al Saud rulers have, in fact, created a number of organizations and funded different loyal Muslim groups to enhance their prestige and promote their influence in the world, without angering the United States or causing frictions with the West. They created the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 1969 by bringing diverse Muslim countries together to defend Islam and promote Muslim interests worldwide, have funded Muslim charities and Islamic nongovernmental organizations, such as the Muslim World League to mobilize the Muslims behind the kingdom. The use of Islam as a domestic and foreign policy tool did not go unchallenged by domestic radical Islamic groups and some international actors, however. Iran, for example, challenges the Saudi right to define the relationship between Islam and politics, and to lead the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda and its off-shoot, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), view the Al Saud regime as a deviant from Islam and much closer to what they brand Islam’s enemy “infidel” America, a justification for al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. Bronson 2005 discusses the dangers of Saudi religious proselytization. Delong-Bas 2004 draws attention to how Wahhabi text and teachings were misused by the Islamic extremists to promote political ends. Dawisha 1985 is a significant contribution to Islam and foreign policies of Muslim states. Kechichian 1986 elaborates the influence of the Al al-Shaykh on Saudi domestic politics. Mouline 2014 is an insightful reading on the Wahhabi religious movement from a multidisciplinary perspective. Piscatori 1986 discusses the pro-status quo Saudi Islamic role in the international system. Sheikh 2003 is a good discussion on the influence of pan-Islamic ideas and identities on the international relations of the Muslim states.

• Bronson, Rachel. “Rethinking Religion: The Legacy of the U.S.–Saudi Relationship.” The Washington Quarterly 28.4 (2005): 121–127.

  DOI: 10.1162/0163660054798672Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Bronson draws attention to Saudi Arabia’s role in funding and spawning Islamic religious zealots during the Cold War era and argues that it is neither in America’s nor in Saudi Arabia’s interests to support the religious extremists.

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• Dawisha, Adeed, ed. Islam in Foreign Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

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  A provocative book that brings home the point that Islam was hardly an ideological factor in the foreign policies of Muslim states, other than post-1979 Iran, and that Islam’s influence has been largely neutralized by pragmatic considerations of national interests.

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• Delong-Bas, Natana. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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  The author contradicts the view that Islamic violence originates from Abd al-Wahhab’s texts and writings; rather, extremist tools like violence or militancy were added to al-Wahhab’s teachings from the 19th century onward for political purposes, to justify the fight against Ottoman control of the Arabian Peninsula.

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• Kechichian, Joseph A. “The Role of the Ulama in the Politics of an Islamic State: The Case of Saudi Arabia.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 18.1 (1986): 53–71.

  DOI: 10.1017/S002074380003021XSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Kechichian discusses the historic role of the Wahhabi ulama in Saudi Arabia, the evolution of their relationship with the Al Saud political authorities, and the ways the clash between the conservative ulama and modernizing political forces are moderated in the kingdom.

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• Mouline, Nabil. The Clerics of Islam: Religious Authority and Political Power in Saudi Arabia. Translated by Ethan S. Rundell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

  DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300178906.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Mouline sheds critical light on the roles the Wahhabi clerics have played to shape Saudi Arabia’s political and religious identity and the kingdom’s contributions to the expansion of Salafist Islam worldwide.

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• Piscatori, James. Islam in a World of Nation-States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

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  An investigation into how the Muslim states, while leaving behind their classical and legal theories of Islam, have adapted to the norms and functions of the West-created international order composed of sovereign nation-states.

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• Sheikh, Naveed S. The New Politics of Islam: Pan-Islamic Foreign Policy in a World of States. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203220337Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Sheikh delves into an analysis of the significance of Pan-Islamism, centering on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), for the frontline Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan and examines how Pan-Islamism has affected their international relations.

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Saudi Foreign Policy Decision-making Process

Saudi Arabia no doubt plays a significant role in regional and global politics but little is known about how the foreign policy decisions are made, as available literature on this important topic is scant. The kingdom is an authoritarian state, not a democracy, headed by a reigning king. That means the decision-making process is a top-down process, entirely under the control of the king or occasionally a powerful crown prince (consider the case of Mohammed bin Salman). There is no parliament or legally recognized political groups or parties to offer public inputs either to facilitate or to constrain the domestic or foreign policy decision-making processes. King Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz (in power from 1982 to 2005) created a consultative assembly (Majlis al-Shura) in March 1992 to initiate formal consultations with Islamic experts on public policy issues. Members of the assembly are appointed by the king, and hardly enjoy any real power to make policies, other than recommend policy choices. The assembly has a committee on foreign relations but it is not known whether the committee has ever exerted any major influence to shape foreign policy decisions or to set the general guidelines for Saudi foreign policy. Usually, the king, the crown prince, and a handful of other powerful princes from the Al Saud royal family make decisions based on consensus, a long-term practice violated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in recent months and years. Korany and Fattah 2010 explores the obscure Saudi foreign policy decision-making process in light of Saudi reactions to the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Nasser 1990 delineates the general characteristics of Saudi foreign policy decision-making process. Karim 2017 explains the recent shift in the kingdom’s foreign policy decision-making.

• Karim, Umer. “The Evolution of Saudi Foreign Policy and the Role of Decision-Making Processes and Actors.” International Spectator 52.2 (2017): 71–88.

  DOI: 10.1080/03932729.2017.1308643Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Karim analyzes the recent shift from consensual to swift and adventurous decision-making process in Saudi foreign policy under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and predicts that this shift, primarily caused by Iran’s rising influence, is likely to characterize Saudi foreign policy behavior in the years to come.

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• Korany, Bahgat, and Moataz A. Fattah. “Irreconcilable Role-Partners? Saudi Foreign Policy between Ulama and the US.” In The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization. Rev. ed. Edited by Bahgat Korany and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki, 343–396. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2010.

  DOI: 10.5743/cairo/9789774163609.003.0011Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This chapter captures the varied nature and dynamics of domestic pressure groups as they relate to foreign policy issues, and attempts to explain the obscure Saudi foreign policy decision-making process using the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as a case in point.

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• Nasser, Mosaed Abdullah. Principles and Policies in Saudi Arabian Foreign Relations with Special Reference to the Superpowers and Major Arab Neighbors. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 1990.

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  Nasser argues that the Saudi foreign policy decision-making process is opaque but actual decision-making is preceded by longer discussions and hard bargaining among key leaders of Saudi government. Shrouded by secrecy, this slow decision-making process frustrates Saudi efforts to quickly respond to crisis situations in regional and international politics.

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