Download or read book Saudi Arabia written by Christopher M. Blanchard and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Recent Developments; (2) Background: Saudi Arabia (SA)-U.S. Relations, 1931-2001; 9/11 and its Aftermath; Recent Assessments; Terrorist Financing; (3) Congress. Interest in SA: U.S. Foreign Assist. to SA and Prohibitions; Counter-terrorism Assist.; BAE Corruption Inquiry; (4) Current Issues in U.S.-SA Relations; Mil. Cooperation: Counterterrorism; Al Qaeda; Combating Extremism; Arab-Israeli Conflict; SA-Palestinian Relations; SA Policy Priorities in Iraq; U.S.-SA Trade; U.S. Oil Imports and SA Policy; SA Boycott of Israel and WTO Membership; Human Rights, Religious Freedom, and Political Reform; Leadership and Succession; Social Reform Debates and Recent Leadership Changes; Human Rights; Religious Freedom.

Download or read book Russia s Relations with the GCC and Iran written by Nikolay Kozhanov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers insight into the motives behind Moscow’s behaviour in the Persian Gulf (with a specific focus on the GCC member states and Iran), considering Russia’s growing role in the Middle East and its desire to protect national interests using a wide range of means. The book explores the drivers and motivations of the Russian foreign policy in the Gulf region, thus, helping the audience to generate informed prognosis about Moscow’s moves in this area over the next years. In contrast to most studies of Russia’s presence in the region, this book considers the Russian involvement in the Gulf from two standpoints – the Russian and foreign. The idea of the book is to take several key problems of Moscow’s presence in the Gulf, each of these to be covered by two authors—Russian and non-Russian scholars, in order to offer the readers alternative visions of Moscow’s policies towards Iran and the GCC countries

Download or read book Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy written by Neil Partrick and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the only oil producer with sufficient spare capacity to shape the world economy, Saudi Arabia is one of the most significant states in twenty-first century geopolitics. Despite the enormous potential for Saudi Arabia to play a more robust regional and international role, the Kingdom faces serious internal and external challenges in the form of political incapacity and competition with states such as Iran. In this examination of Saudi Arabia's foreign policy, Gulf expert Neil Partrick, and other regional analysts, address the Kingdom's relations in the Middle East and wider Islamic world, and its engagement with both established and emergent global powers. In doing so, he analyses the factors, ranging from identity politics to Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons that determine the Kingdom's foreign policy. As Saudi Arabia prepares for a generational shift brought about by an ageing leadership, the rapidly changing balance of power in the Middle East offers both great opportunity and great danger. For students of the Middle East and international relations, understanding Saudi Arabia's foreign policy and its engagement with the region and the world is more important than ever.

Download or read book What Is Russia Up To in the Middle East written by Dmitri Trenin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eyes of the world are on the Middle East. Today, more than ever, this deeply-troubled region is the focus of power games between major global players vying for international influence. Absent from this scene for the past quarter century, Russia is now back with gusto. Yet its motivations, decision-making processes and strategic objectives remain hard to pin down. So just what is Russia up to in the Middle East? In this hard-hitting essay, leading analyst of Russian affairs Dmitri Trenin cuts through the hyperbole to offer a clear and nuanced analysis of Russia's involvement in the Middle East and its regional and global ramifications. Russia, he argues, cannot and will not supplant the U.S. as the leading external power in the region, but its actions are accelerating changes which will fundamentally remake the international system in the next two decades.

Download or read book Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East written by F Gregory Gause, III and published by Council on Foreign Relations. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States'' relationship with Saudi Arabia has been one of the cornerstones of U.S. policy in the Middle East for decades. Despite their substantial differences in history, culture, and governance, the two countries have generally agreed on important political and economic issues and have often relied on each other to secure mutual aims. The 1990-91 Gulf War is perhaps the most obvious example, but their ongoing cooperation on maintaining regional stability, moderating the global oil market, and pursuing terrorists should not be downplayed. Yet for all the relationship''s importance, it is increasingly imperiled by mistrust and misunderstanding. One major question is Saudi Arabia''s stability. In this Council Special Report, sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, F. Gregory Gause III first explores the foundations of Riyadh''s present stability and potential sources of future unrest. It is difficult not to notice that Saudi Arabia avoided significant upheaval during the political uprisings that swept the Middle East in 2011, despite sharing many of the social and economic problems of Egypt, Yemen, and Libya. But unlike their counterparts in Cairo, Sanaa, and Tripoli, Riyadh''s leadership was able to maintain order in large part by increasing public spending on housing and salaries, relying on loyal and well-equipped security forces, and utilizing its extensive patronage networks. The divisions within the political opposition also helped the government''s cause. This is not to say that Gause believes that the stability of the House of Saud is assured. He points out that the top heirs to the throne are elderly and the potential for disorderly squabbling may increase as a new generation enters the line of succession. Moreover, the population is growing quickly, and there is little reason to believe that oil will forever be able to buy social tranquility. Perhaps most important, Gause argues, the leadership''s response to the 2011 uprisings did little to forestall future crises; an opportunity for manageable political reform was mostly lost. Turning to the regional situation, Gause finds it no less complex. Saudi Arabia has wielded considerable influence with its neighbors through its vast oil reserves, its quiet financial and political support for allies, and the ideological influence of salafism, the austere interpretation of Islam that is perhaps Riyadh''s most controversial export. For all its wealth and religious influence, however, Saudi Arabia''s recent record has been less than successful. It was unable to counter Iranian influence in post-Saddam Iraq, it could not prevent Hezbollah taking power in Lebanon, and its ongoing efforts to reconcile Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have come to naught. The U.S.-Saudi relationship has, unsurprisingly, been affected by these and other challenges, including Saudi unhappiness with Washington''s decision to distance itself from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Iran. For its part, the United States is unhappy with the Saudi intervention in Bahrain and Saudi support for radical Islamists around the region and the world. The two traditional anchors of the U.S.-Saudi relationship-the Cold War and U.S. operation of Riyadh''s oil fields-are, Gause notes, no longer factors. It is no wonder, he contends, that the relationship is strained when problems are myriad and the old foundations of the informal alliance are gone. It would be far better, Gause argues, to acknowledge that the two countries can no longer expect to act in close concert under such conditions. He recommends that the United States reimagine the relationship as simply transactional, based on cooperation when interests-rather than habit-dictate. Prioritizing those interests will therefore be critical. Rather than pressuring Riyadh for domestic political reform, or asking it to reduce global oil prices, Gause recommends that the United States spend its political capital where it really matters: on maintaining regional security, dismantling terrorist networks, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. There have been few relationships more important to the United States than that with Saudi Arabia, and it is vital that, as it enters a new phase, the expectations and priorities of both countries are clear. In Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East, Gause effectively assesses the challenges and opportunities facing Saudi Arabia and makes a compelling argument for a more modest, businesslike relationship between Washington and Riyadh that better reflects modern realities. As the United States begins reassessing its commitments in the Greater Middle East, this report offers a clear vision for a more limited-but perhaps more appropriate and sustainable-future partnership.

Download or read book US Saudi Arabia Diplomatic and Political Cooperation Handbook Volume 1 Strategic Information and Developments written by IBP USA and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2007-02-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: US-Saudi Arabia Diplomatic and Political Cooperation Handbook

Download or read book Russia in the Middle East and North Africa written by Taylor & Francis Group and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Russia's re-engagement with the Middle East and North Africa through the historical drivers of Russian interest in the MENA region and current Russian policies. It unpacks key aspects of Russian presence in the area, including national interest, historical ties, economic, political and cultural cooperation.

Download or read book Out of the Desert written by Ali Al-Naimi and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extraordinary memoir of global oil's former central banker Ali Al-Naimi is the former Saudi oil minister - and OPEC kingpin - a position he held for the two decades between August 1995 and May 2016. In this time, Al-Naimi's briefest utterances moved markets. But it wasn't always that way. Al-Naimi was born into abject poverty as a nomadic Bedouin in the 1930s, just as US companies were discovering vast quantities of oil under the baking Arabian deserts. From his first job as a shepherd boy, aged four, to his appointment to one of the most powerful political and economic jobs in the world, Out of the Desert charts Al-Naimi's extraordinary rise to power. Described by Alan Greenspan as 'the most powerful man you've never heard of', Al-Naimi's incredible journey proves that anyone can make it - even a poor Bedouin shepherd boy. This is his exclusive inside story of power, politics and oil. His Excellency Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi is the former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the most powerful economic and political jobs in the world, he held this post from August 1995 to May 2016. Prior to that he held a wide range of leadership positions in the Kingdom's national oil company, Saudi Aramco. He was the first Saudi national to be named President of the company in 1984 and became the first Saudi CEO in 1988. Al-Naimi joined the company, then called Aramco, as an office boy in 1947. A Bedouin, he was born in the deserts of eastern Arabia in 1935.

Download or read book Strategic assessment 2020 written by Thomas F. Lynch III and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Thicker Than Oil written by Rachel Bronson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-05 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fifty-five years, the United States and Saudi Arabia were solid partners. Then came the 9/11 attacks, which sorely tested that relationship. In Thicker than Oil, Rachel Bronson reveals why the partnership became so intimate and how the countries' shared interests sowed the seeds of today's most pressing problem--Islamic radicalism. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, declassified documents, and interviews with leading Saudi and American officials, and including many colorful stories of diplomatic adventures and misadventures, Bronson chronicles a history of close, and always controversial, contacts. She argues that contrary to popular belief the relationship was never simply about "oil for security." Saudi Arabia's geographic location and religiously motivated foreign policy figured prominently in American efforts to defeat "godless communism." From Africa to Afghanistan, Egypt to Nicaragua, the two worked to beat back Soviet expansion. But decisions made for hardheaded Cold War purposes left behind a legacy that today enflames the Middle East. Looking forward, Bronson outlines the challenges confronting the relationship. The Saudi government faces a zealous internal opposition bent on America's and Saudi Arabia's destruction. Yet from the perspective of both countries, the status quo is clearly unsustainable.

Download or read book Triple Axis written by Ariane Tabatabai and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most significant challenge to the post-Cold War international order is the growing power of ambitious states opposed to the West. Iran, Russia and China each view the global structure through the prism of historical experience. Rejecting the universality of Western liberal values, these states and their governments each consider the relative decline of Western economic hegemony as an opportunity. Yet cooperation between them remains fragmentary. The end of Western sanctions and the Iranian nuclear deal; the Syrian conflict; new institutions in Central and East Asia: in all these areas and beyond, the potential for unity or divergence is striking. In this new and comprehensive study, Ariane Tabatabai and Dina Esfandiary address the substance of this `triple axis' in the realms of energy, trade, and military security. In particular they scrutinise Iran-Russia and the often overlooked field of Iran-China relations. Their argument - that interactions between the three will shape the world stage for decades to come - will be of interest to anyone looking to understand the contemporary international security puzzle.

Download or read book Orsam Rapor Say 32 Understanding Economic Relations Between Saudi Arabia And Russia written by Murat Aslan and published by ORSAM. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle East region was redesigned in the aftermath of the First World War according to the balance and interests between the world powers of the period. Between the two world wars, there had not been much change in local societies and political mechanisms in the Middle East region. After the Second World War, especially since the 1950s, this region has had an important place in the power struggle between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. In the new global order that emerged after the end of the Cold War, the Middle East region continued to undergo regional fluctuations under the influence of new power dynamics. The United States, which was the only global superpower in the 1990s, was acting according to its own interests with its hegemonic power both in world politics and in the Middle East. However, since the 2000s, the world order has become more polarized, and Russia's interest in the region has increased together with China’s. The main focus of this report is to examine the main driving motives behind the economic and trade relations that were formed between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (hereinafter the KSA) and the Russian Federation (hereinafter the RF) since the 1990s. One of the main arguments set forward in this report is that the course of the economic relations between KSA and RF has been guided by the changing political balances and power relations at the global and regional levels. It is clear that explaining bilateral economic relations between countries with only one dimension and simple political (or economic) concepts will be highly unrealistic and extremely insufficient. It is also clear that an explanation based merely on simple economic concepts such as foreign trade, exchange rates, and profit maximization would be incomplete. For these reasons, we find it appropriate to analyze the diplomatic and political relations and developments in the Moscow-Riyadh axis by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. The perspective of the global political economy offers a powerful explanatory model. In the most recent decades both Moscow and Riyadh have been following proactive foreign policies, and their policy behaviors resemble a complicated mechanism fed from multiple sources. Russia's national economy has been stagnant due to the recent decline in oil prices. Despite the weakening budgetary resources and the economic stagnation, Russia's foreign policy moves are heading towards an extremely proactive trajectory. The important events of the 2000s are the September 11 terrorist attacks, invasion of Iraq by the US, Color Revolutions in the former Soviet geography, 2008 global financial crisis, and the Arab uprisings that have shaken the Middle East since 2010-2011 and their repercussions. These changes have deeply affected the world political system and global governance issues. The Moscow elite focused on two aspects of these changes and developments: the survival of the state and increasing security threats. These major events have fed into Russia's highly assertive and aggressive foreign policy behavior. Military engagement with Georgia in 2008, rapprochement with China and Iran, as well as the improvement of diplomatic relations in the Middle East are some examples in this regard. In particular, Russia's proactive foreign policy behaviors have accelerated since 2012 with Putin’s third term as president, reaching a peak in 2015 when Moscow surprised the international community by actively involving in the Syrian civil war. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has been conducting military operations for the first time in a region outside the former Soviet territory. From a global perspective, we observe that Russia's foreign policy has had a significant impact, particularly on Middle Eastern affairs. Russia’s relationship with the Middle East is based on three pillars: restoration of prestige in the global power struggle, security interests, and economic interests (Wasser, 2019). These factors, to a certain extent, also apply to Russia’s bilateral relations with the KSA. Another critical factor in the course of bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia is the changes in the US perception of global and regional security threats. Especially after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia, like all Gulf countries, had its share from the aggressive approach of the US. In the face of Washington's aggressive and unconstructive attitude, the Gulf monarchies had to take some steps for the protection of the status quo. Historically, the relations between the KSA and Russia were mostly shaped by the state of relations between Riyadh and Washington. Yet, the relations between the KSA and Russia have evolved to include economic and political interests in addition to the indirect effects of the power struggle among global powers. Russia's active engagement in the Middle East and the Gulf has both geopolitical and regional dimensions. From the geopolitical point of view, Moscow always looks at the region through the lens of its goal of projecting power at the global level and confronting the West—or simply the US. Thus, regional priorities play a secondary role. Analysts and experts have focused on Russia’s foreign policy actions, including Moscow’s partnership with China, the war against Georgia, conflicts with Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea, military intervention in Syria, and the increasing activism in the Eurasian Economic Union, which can be considered to be in line with Russia’s strategy of balancing the West. Such measures are part of a broader strategy aimed at undermining the cohesion in the rival axis, (US, NATO, and the European Union) thus making the Western alliance unable to plan, formulate, and implement a policy on Russia and its near abroad. As an example of the challenge posed by Moscow to the US and its global liberal order, in June 2021, Russia declared that it would remove its dollar assets and replace them with gold and euros. There is a lack of analytical studies that examine Putin's era in the Russian Federation from a political economy perspective. Many crucial issues and questions are yet to be addressed. The most important question in this regard is what are the main factors behind Moscow’s recent activism in the Middle East? This report tries to answer this question by focusing on the interplay of global power dynamics, ideational and domestic sources of Russian foreign policy under the rubric of the global political economy. In the following sections, the study reviews the bilateral relations between the KSA and RF after the Cold War. In the subsequent section, the main pillars of Russian foreign policy are outlined with a political economy approach. Later, the report reviews the macroeconomic characteristics of these two countries. In the fourth section, the study focuses on bilateral relations in a historical context. In the fifth section, the bilateral relations are discussed under the headings of trade, energy, and investment, to shed light on all those issues. In particular, the study offers an in-depth analysis of trade, investment, and energy questions, where we examine the complex interdependency and other dynamics in the global energy markets that, to some extent, shape the recent coordination between the KSA and the Russian Federation. The final section concludes the report.

Download or read book China Saudi Arabia Relations 1990 2012 written by Naser M. Al-Tamimi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the relationship established between China, the world’s second largest economy, and Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter. Due to Saudi Arabia’s dominance of the world oil market, China is increasingly focusing its attention on the Saudi Arabia as a reliable oil supplier while Saudi Arabia sees China as an enormous potential market and strategic trade partner. It investigates both countries’ motives for establishing a strategic relationship and outlines the potential for successful co-operation between them. It then goes on to address the wider implications for the United States in the Middle East.

Download or read book Black Wave written by Kim Ghattas and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 “[A] sweeping and authoritative history" (The New York Times Book Review), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979. Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to Iran’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS. Ghattas introduces us to a riveting cast of characters whose lives were upended by the geopolitical drama over four decades: from the Pakistani television anchor who defied her country’s dictator, to the Egyptian novelist thrown in jail for indecent writings all the way to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Black Wave is both an intimate and sweeping history of the region and will significantly alter perceptions of the Middle East.

Download or read book Saudi Arabia Diplomatic Handbook Volume 1 Strategic Information and Developments written by IBP USA and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saudi Arabia Diplomatic Handbook - Strategic Information and Developments

Download or read book Crossroads of Competition written by Becca Wasser and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report details the political, economic, and military interests and activities of China and Russia in the Middle East and identifies where those efforts contest, intersect, or complement U.S. interests and activities.

Download or read book Mohammed Bin Salman written by David Ottaway and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sheds light on the conundrums at the heart of any attempt to understand Saudi Arabia-and the man who is poised to rule the country for decades to come"--