Wow! eBook
Saudi Arabia and Iran: Soft Power Rivalry in the Middle East
Author(s): Simon Mabon (Author)
- Publisher: I.B.Tauris
- Publication Date: 30 May 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 1780763115
- ISBN-13: 9781780763118
Book Description
In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, relations between states in the Middle East were reconfigured and reassessed overnight. Amongst the most-affected was the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The existence of a new regime in Tehran led to increasingly vitriolic confrontations between these two states, often manifesting themselves in the conflicts across the region, such as those in Lebanon and Iraq, and more recently in Bahrain and Syria. In order to shed light upon this rivalry, Simon Mabon examines the different identity groups within Saudi Arabia and Iran (made up of various religions, ethnicities and tribal groupings), proposing that internal insecurity has an enormous impact on the wider ideological and geopolitical competition between the two. With analysis of this heated and often uneasy relationship and its impact on the wider Middle East, this book is vital for those researching international relations and diplomacy in the region.
Editorial Reviews
Review
All too often, analysis of tension across the Gulf region has been framed by recourse to a realpolitik that shapes and moulds competition between Riyadh and Tehran. In the wake of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East, this competition, with its overtones of an Islamic clash of civilizations now appears to set to shape popular perception and elite decision making as new security agendas and alliances are mapped out. Now, in this thoughtful and perceptive new book, Simon Mabon offers an alternative understanding of how and why the external manifestations of this competitive relationship are to be found in the internal social and political challenges faced by two regional regimes struggling to accommodate the wider eddies of political and social pluralism. This book is essential reading for any informed understanding of a relationship whose scope and dynamic will likely shape the political and strategic landscape of the Middle East in the years ahead. –Professor Clive Jones, Chair in Regional Security, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University.
About the Author
Simon Mabon is Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Leeds.