A Study of United States and Saudi Arabia's Reactions to people's Uprising in Bahrain (2011-2012)

Subject Areas :

Shahrooz Ebrahimi ¹ , Mohammad Reza Salehi ² , Syed Mohammad Parsaei ³

1 - استادیار و عضو هیات علمی گروه علوم سیاسی دانشگاه اصفهان
2 - کارشناس ارشد مطالعات منطقه ای دانشکده روابط بین الملل وزارت امور خارجه
3 - دانشجوی دکترای مطالعات منطقه ای دانشگاه تهران

Received: 2012-04-05 Accepted : 2012-06-01 Published : 2012-01-01

Keywords: Saudi Arabia, America, Bahrain uprising, military intervention, Regional Competition,

Abstract :

Bahrain is one of the countries which under the impact of unsuitable political and social conditions and also under the inspiration of Islamic-Arabic awakening in the Middle East and North Africa is witnessing people’s uprising. The present paper is of the view that the real cause of people’s uprising in Bahrain is in domestic factors and the structure of society and politics of that country. Saudi Arabia with a different motivation and interpretation on the morning of 14 March dispatched its forces and militarily intervened in Bahrain. The United States also for different reasons kept silent about these developments and in other instances it merely suggested holding of talks between the oppositions and Bahraini government and implementing reforms. The present article wants to answer three basic questions: 1.What are the grounds of people’s uprising in Bahrain? 2. On what logic and basis the United States has kept silent about Bahrain crisis? 3. What are the motivations of Saudi Arabia in militarily intervening in Bahrain? The underlying hypothesis is that the struggle for power and national interest at the macro and regional level for the United States and in regional and internal level for Saudi Arabia is basis of the United States and Saudi Arabia behaviour in Bahrain. The finding of the study shows the main cause of people’s uprising in Bahrain is the cleavage between the government and people due to unequal distribution of wealth, power and position. The United States wants to sustain its hegemony in international system by controlling the lifeline of energy in strategic Persian Gulf region. In this direction the United States wants to retain its security links with the countries of Persian Gulf Cooperation Council by military presence and opposition to Islamic Republic of Iran. To sum up, power and national interests justify the logic of the United States policy in Bahrain. On the other hand, the nature of political system of Saudi Arabia and the resultant fear of expansion of democracy to Saudi Arabia along with competition and regional opposition to Iran is the main motivation of Riyadh in question of Bahrain. The present paper by a descriptive-analytical method wants to study the above issue.