Saudi British relations, 1939-1953

Abstract

The present study attempts to understand the shift that occurred in Saudi-British relations by the year 1953. The tracing of such a shift is dealt with by investigating the development of these relations from 1939 and through to 1953.The research is drawn upon a documentary diplomatic history method reinforced by an analytical approach. Within the framework of analysis, the Realism approach to international politics is selected. Certain assumptions that most of - classical and modern - Realists agreed upon are in use, specifically the state-centric assumption, the rationality assumption, the unitary assumption, the anarchic assumption, and the security assumption. As is clear from existing secondary sources, Saudi Arabia and Britain enjoyed a kind of special relationship in the early 1940s, but by the last year of King Ibn Saud's reign (1953) these two states' relations had deteriorated into severe conflict. Though some existing sources have attempted to shed some light on that development, their findings are indeed modest. In fact, none of this literature has studied the topic from a purely Saudi-British perspective, nor has any of it explored and analysed the matter with the depth that it deserves. By focusing on Saudi-British relations the chapters of this thesis are endeavouring to answer profoundly a variety of questions that affected the main course of these relations. By questioning the impact of certain issues on Saudi-Anglo relations - such that of Saudi-US relations, the security concept, the Saudi-Hashemite problem, and the frontier conflict - the thesis will address its main theme.