Doha: The impact of recent political developments in regional diplomatic relations was the focus of a Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) Monthly Dialogue public lecture ‘The US-Saudi Arabia Relationship: ‘Special’ or Broken?.
It was delivered by Middle East scholar Dr Michael C Hudson (pictured) at the Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) campus.
“The Middle East is in a turbulent condition. And that condition means that traditional alliance patterns and US foreign policy should be re-thought and re-examined,” said Dr Hudson, also Seif Ghobash Professor of International Relations and Arab Studies, Emeritus, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Launching into a review of historical roots of bilateral relations that have traditionally been based on mutual benefits of the oil industry, he argued that the lifting of sanctions on Iran, plunging energy prices, regional security issues and budgetary constraints and rising unemployment in the kingdom, have introduced new challenges to the relationship today.
“The concern is over how the strategy to re-establish stability and a rebalance of regional powers is being executed.
“That’s why the special relationship is no longer special,” he explained, noting GCC countries’ stance on Iran and their role in the war in Yemen. He said while the foreign policy trajectories for the two countries were increasingly at odds, shared regional interests still insured positive future relations.
“Even with doubts over Saudi, the US can’t afford to lose them. There’s continuity there — the long relationship with the US military and their counterparts in the region, continuing American presence in the Middle East remains very substantial,” he concluded.
Dr Mehran Kamrava, Director, CIRS, said: “It was an honour to host a scholar of Dr Hudson’s stature for the first CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture of the semester.
“Dr Hudson has long been a keen observer of US foreign policy in the Middle East and of Saudi Arabia, and his analysis of subtle but significant changes in US-Saudi relations are perceptive and timely.”
Dr Hudson is a former director of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
From 2010 to 2014, he was the first director of the Middle East Institute and professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
He was also the Kuwait Foundation visiting scholar at the Harvard Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative in Spring 2015.
The Peninsula
