11. Foreign Policymaking in the Middle East: Complex Realism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Hinnebusch ◽  
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Key Events

This chapter examines the process of foreign policymaking by regional states based on a ‘complex realist’ approach, which acknowledges the weight of realist (or power based) arguments but takes into account other factors such as the role of leadership in informing states’ foreign policy choices. The chapter first provides an overview of complex realism and the framework of analysis by considering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) environment. It then illustrates the complex realist approach with an an assessment of decision-making by four leading states — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt — in relation to the key events and crises of the last decade: the 2003 Iraq War, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the post-2014 war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relative weight of the various policymaking determinants in the 2000s.

11. Foreign Policymaking in the Middle East: Complex Realism

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-270
Author(s):  
Raymond Hinnebusch ◽  
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Key Events

This chapter studies foreign policymaking by regional states in the Middle East based on a ‘complex realist’ approach. This acknowledges the weight of realist arguments but highlights other factors such as the level of dependency on the United States, processes of democratization, and the role of leadership in informing states' foreign policy choices. To illustrate this approach, the chapter examines decision-making by four leading states — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt — in relation to the key events and crises of the last decade: the 2003 Iraq War; the 2006 Hezbollah War; and the post-2014 War with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS). The cases indicate that, as realists expect, states' foreign policies chiefly respond to threats and opportunities, as determined by their relative power positions.

26. Conflict and Chaos in the Middle East

2020 ◽  
pp. 643-669
Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter examines the unrest across the Middle East in the 2010s. The first section focuses on the civil war in Syria and the role of so-called Islamic State., examining the causes of the Syrian uprising and the development of protests against President Assad into civil war. It describes the growth of Jihadism, formation of Ahrar al-Sham, and emergence of ISIS, and the subsequent declaration of a Caliphate. The escalation and destructive impact of the conflict is examined in the context of increasing international intervention and the involvement of foreign powers in both exacerbation of the conflict and efforts to restore peace. The second section describes the growing regional importance of Iran alongside the 2015 nuclear deal and tensions with Saudi Arabia. The chapter concludes with the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt, conflict in Yemen, and the downfall of Gaddafi in Libya.

scholarly journals A STRATEGIC PUZZLE OF SAUDI-IRAN STRIFE AND FOREIGN POLICY CHOICES OF PAKISTAN (2013-18)

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (02) ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Yeldaiz Fatima Shah ◽  
Muhammad Adnan Aslam ◽  
Ghulam Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Middle East Politics

In diverse circumstances of region, Iran and Saudi Arabia have significant part in foreign policy of Pakistan. It is difficult for policy makers of Pakistan to retain acceptable relations and policies towards both countries at the same time because of severe contentions between the Iran and Saudi Arabia including the high interests of the main players in the Middle East Politics. The main objectives of research are to elucidate the different standpoints between Iran and Saudi Arabia and their impacts on policies of Pakistan. Different diplomatic, political and economic triangle developments among Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is discussed during last government tenure of PML (N). For this set out, the qualitative method with historical research design has been used, through argumentation procedure while complex interdependent theory applied to examine the nature of triangle relations and policies including their impacts on regional politics and economy. The study provides significant insights for its implication in the particular context with diverse outcomes.

Saudi focus on Iran risks stoking regional instability

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Crown Prince ◽  
State Group

Subject Saudi policy in the Middle East. Significance King Salman's accession in January 2015 heralded a major change in foreign policy. The decision-making process was streamlined and placed in the hands of princes from the younger generation of royals, the new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These changes have created an unprecedented dynamism in Saudi leadership and led to direct interventions in regional crises. Impacts Antagonism towards Tehran will deter cooperation on oil price or production initiatives. It will also constrain the potential for Gulf Arab states to do business with post-sanctions Iran. Failure to show victory in Yemen will cloud Mohammed bin Salman's succession chances, and could see his removal after King Salman's death. Saudi state's sectarian, anti-Iranian rhetoric risks increasing popular support for Islamic State group (ISG). Instability could increase in Lebanon as Saudi Arabia draws back its support.

scholarly journals Jordanian Foreign Policy in Confrontation with Extremism and Terrorism: The International Alliance Is a Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Radwan Mahmoud Al-Majali ◽  
Al-Motasem Ahmad A. Alkhalaileh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Alliance ◽  
Crises Management ◽  
Economic Instrument

The study aims at researching in the Jordanian foreign Policy in confrontation with extremism and terrorism through concentration on factors and determinates that pushed Jordan to enter the International Alliance in fighting terrorism, especially fighting Da’ish organization. Corresponding to that significance of the study appears through discussing the role of the foreign policy and its instruments in limiting the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism and the most important strategies that the states should follow in light of the internal and external environmental impacts in confronting extremism and terrorism within the preventive procedures and terrorist crises management. The study employed the method of decision making in achieving objectives of study and its questions where the main question emerged: what are the most important determinants of the Jordanian Foreign Policy in joining the International Alliance against the terrorism, especially fighting the organization of the Islamic State “Da’ish”? The study deduced a number of results from the most important of them is that: Jordan could take a group of procedures and arrangements at the level of the foreign policy through the period (2011-2017) in confronting extremism ant terrorism within activation of military, diplomatic and media instruments, where the economic instrument appeared from the weakest instruments of the foreign policy and a negative factor in the process of decision-making. The study proved that the joining of Jordan to the International Alliance to fight Dai’sh Organization as a result of great impact of the geographic determinant, and availability of the organization at geographic territories forming a strategic danger on Jordan. The study also recommended with the necessity of treating the social and economic problems as an important side and supporter in enhancing the instruments of the Jordanian Foreign Policy.

From detente to containment: the emergence of Iran's new Saudi strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Ahmadian ◽  
Payam Mohseni
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Peace And Conflict ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Decision Making Factors ◽  
Containment Strategy ◽  
The Persian Gulf

Abstract Iran's strategy with respect to Saudi Arabia is a key factor in the complex balance of power of the Middle East as the Iranian–Saudi rivalry impacts the dynamics of peace and conflict across the region from Yemen to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. What is Iranian strategic thinking on Saudi Arabia? And what have been the key factors driving the evolution of Iranian strategy towards the Kingdom? In what marks a substantive shift from its previous detente policy, we argue that Tehran has developed a new containment strategy in response to the perceived threat posed by an increasingly prox-active Saudi Arabia in the post-Arab Spring period. Incorporating rich fieldwork and interviews in the Middle East, this article delineates the theoretical contours of Iranian containment and contextualizes it within the framework of the Persian Gulf security architecture, demonstrating how rational geopolitical decision-making factors based on a containment strategy, rather than the primacy of sectarianism or domestic political orientations, shape Iran's Saudi strategy. Accordingly, the article traces Iranian strategic decision-making towards the Kingdom since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and examines three cases of Iran's current use of containment against Saudi Arabia in Syria, Yemen and Qatar.

scholarly journals La complexité de valeurs dans la politique étrangère de l'administration Reagan face à l'Iran

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-551
Author(s):  
André Lecours
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Classic Problem ◽  
A Value ◽  
Complexity Problem

The formulation of a policy that will satisfy several values and interests more or less compatible is a classic problem of political decision making. This phenomenon by which there can be, in a foreign policy issue for example, several divergent values and interests was named value-complexity by Alexander George. When facing a value complexity problem, a decision maker must choose some values and some interests over others. The choice he makes will not necessarily be the one made by other decision makers. This can result in a serious impediment to the decision making process. The American foreign policy towards the Middle East faced, for the major part of the Cold War era, a value-complexity problem because it looked to reconcile four hard-to reconcile values and interests. The Reagan government was confronted rather acutely with this problem in the making of its Iranian policies. The administration was split in at least two factions over Iran : one who thought primarily of containing the Soviet Union in the Middle East region and the other for whom the political stability of moderate regimes threatened by revolutionnary Iran should be the most important priority. The existence of these factions, consequence of value-complexity, produced the making and the implementation of two distinct Iranian policies.

Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.

Middle East Dilemma: Pakistan’s Role as Mediator for Conflict Resolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Zikriya ◽  
Naushad Khan ◽  
Asif Salim
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
East Region ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Middle East Region

The development of International relations together with forces like globalization and technology has brought the world closer to each other. Friendly ties and relations with states create massive challenges during times of conflict. The focus of the paper is on the crisis evolving in the Middle East region and the role of Pakistan in solving those crisis considering relations with its closest allies, political and financial circumstances, and its foreign policy principles. A qualitative research approach with desk analysis technique has been applied to analyse the role of Pakistan as a mediator for the conflict resolution among Middle Eastern countries. The research highlights how the disputes created great problems for Pakistan but it is still striving to resolve conflicts among Middle Eastern countries because maintaining peace and prosperity in the Muslim world has always been a top priority of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

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