So History Doesn't Forget:

International alliances and coalition building are two forms of a nation's foreign policy orientation. Since its establishment in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was able to use a balance of power alliance to preserve the security of its national interests and independence. Domestic, regional, and international factors forced the kingdom to follow such a policy. The kingdom's strategic location demanded that the Saudis maintain open and diversified relations. Islam, pan-Arabism, and communism became the major ideological elements that justified Saudi alignment behavior at the Arab and Islamic level. On the other hand, economic, military, and security interests became the major determinants of Saudi-Western alliances. Regional threats such as the Iranian revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iran-Iraq war, brought Saudi Arabia and the West into close cooperation. During the 1980s, Saudi Arabia entered into extensive military relationships with major Western countries, especially the United States. This cooperation had a significant impact on improving Saudi defense capabilities and enabled the kingdom to build a modern military infrastructure. Foreign aid was a major factor that attracted Arab and Muslim states to align with Saudi Arabia. This instrument has a mix record in serving the Saudi national interest. It had negative consequences on alliances with regional powers involved in the protection of Saudi security. For example, during the 1980s, the kingdom provided generous financial and economic assistance to sustain Iraq against the ideological revolutionary threats of Iran. Although foreign aid enabled the Saudis to contain the Iranian threat, it had the effect of increasing the military power of Iraq. On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein used that power and surprised Saudi Arabia with his invasion of Kuwait and the massing of Iraqi troops along the Saudi border. Limited by its military capabilities compared with Iraq, and the Arab reaction to Iraq's action, Saudi Arabia resorted to a balance of power alliance, but this time against Iraq. Helped with changes in the international structure of power, Saudi Arabia and the United States formed an unprecedented multinational coalition that was able to liberate Kuwait and eliminate the threat of Iraqi military power against the kingdom. The book shows the extent to which pan-Arabism, communism, and Islam have been used by Saudi Arabia to justify its regional and international alliances. It also focuses on the costs and benefits of Saudi security-related alliances. This makes it possible to examine the effectiveness of Saudi foreign aid as instrument to sustain the objectives of its alliances. This book concludes that Saudi alliances with great powers can protect the national interest of the Kingdom more than regional alliances do. Due to the nature of the Middle East's ideological rivalries, Saudi alliances with regional powers were inconsistent and involved conflicting interests. The outcomes of the Saudi-Iraqi alliance during the 1980s exemplified that using foreign aid as an instrument to build regional alliances may create inverse consequences for a nation's national security. On the other hand, Saudi-Western alliances were more stable because they encompassed more realistic and common strategic interests. The purpose of this book is to examine the alignment behavior of Saudi foreign policy, and the impact of this behavior on the kingdom's national security. The study first presents a comprehensive overview of the domestic and external elements of Saudi foreign policy. The focus of this book will rely on two case studies: the Saudi alliance against the Iranian threat during the 1980s and the Saudi-American-led multinational coalition against Iraq during the Gulf crisis. The first case study examines Saudi alignment behavior with regional powers, while the second primarily focuses on the Saudi alignment behavior with the great powers. In both cases, the major aspect of alliance politics (objectives, commitment, influence, ideology, cohesion, constraints) will be carefully addressed. The conclusion of this book is derived from contrasting the impact of those outcomes on Saudi Arabia's national security.