CHANGES IN SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY BEHAVIOR 1964-1975: A STUDY OF THE UNDERLYING FACTORS AND DETERMINANTS

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in Saudi foreign policy behavior. The study contends that in the period 1964-1975, Saudi foreign policy behavior has substantially changed and that these changes were influenced by certain external and internal factors. In order to further explain the changing nature of Saudi foreign policy behavior, background information on Saudi foreign policy from 1932 to 1964 is provided.;What are the factors, domestic, regional, and international, which induced such changes? How relevant is the current foreign policy literature in providing a useful framework to analyze such changes?;A survey of foreign policy literature ruled out the applicability of the decision making and systems analysis approaches to this study. Source analysis approaches were generally found applicable. In view of the partial applicability to the case of Saudi Arabia of Rosenau's framework of analysis, relevant variables from other source analysis frameworks were adopted to supplement that of Rosenau's. The use of the major components of this framework (e.g. international and regional systems, on the external level, the economic, societal, and the idiosyncratic variable, on the internal level) provided a comprehensive analysis of Saudi foreign behavior.;The specific findings of the study clearly underscore the relevance of the range of these external and internal source variables in accounting for the overall changes in Saudi foreign policy behavior. It was also ascertained in the study that, in its overall development over the years, Saudi foreign policy behavior evolved from a less active stage during the reign of King Abdul Aziz (1932-1953), to an active stage, but with an erratic and incoherent pattern of foreign policy behavior at the time of King Saud's reign (1953-1964), to a more active stage with coherent and durable foreign policy behavior in the period of King Faisal's rule (1964-1975).;Having discussed the various changes in Saudi foreign policy behavior (e.g. Saudi Arabia's formation of a foreign policy ideology, its embarkation upon a policy of a greater role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, its successful assumption of the role of arbitrator in regional politics and its wielding of the oil weapon), the major research questions raised were as follows:;In terms of foreign policy study, the specific findings of this dissertation clearly demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of some major source analysis approaches to the study of foreign policy behavior of a traditional developing country like Saudi Arabia. In view of the underdevelopment of this sub-field in its theoretical content, there can be no flourishing of theory until the material of the field has been processed. It is hoped that by conducting an in-depth study of Saudi foreign policy behavior, that such an endeavor would undoubtedly contribute toward that objective.