Saudi Arabia and the US Since 1962: Allies In Conflict - Hardcover

Naif Bin Hethlain

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0863564658 ISBN 13: 9780863564659

Publisher: Saqi Books, 2010

Synopsis

Since the 1960s Saudi Arabia and the US have maintained a strategic alliance which has often involved a delicate diplomatic balancing act. Characterized by overlapping interests and mutual dependency - the US on the Kingdom for its oil and regional influence, Saudi Arabia on the US for security and legitimacy - Saudi-US relations have withstood successive changes of kings and presidents alike. However, since 9/11 officials in both countries have been reluctant to proclaim their relations openly for fear of national opposition. Arguing that Saudi-US relations are critical to developments in the Middle East, Naif bin Hethlain revisits critical past events - Egypt's involvement in Yemen, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Gulf Wars, and the fall of the Twin Towers, among others - and uses them as a framework with which to examine the two nations' complex relationship. Insightful and exhaustively researched, "Saudi Arabia and the US since 1962" is a nuanced assessment of over forty-five years of geopolitics.

About this title

Product Description:

Since the 1960s Saudi Arabia and the US have maintained a strategic alliance which has often involved a delicate diplomatic balancing act. Arguing that Saudi-US relations are critical to developments in the Middle East, this work revisits critical past events and uses them as a framework with which to examine the two nations' complex relationship.

Review:

'This book makes a new and significant contribution to the literature on the critical relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Paradoxically, the writer has been able to use US documents to present a distinctively Saudi perspective on the relationship. The rationale of Saudi policy, and the strong but controlled sense of betrayal when expectations were not fulfilled, is conveyed lucidly in the text. The Saudi establishment finds itself, as Naif bin Hethlain shows, caught between its private security concerns and the requirements and interests of its regional and Islamic roles. --Professor Tim Niblock Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

About this edition

• Publisher: Saqi Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0863564658
• ISBN 13: 9780863564659
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300