Saudi Arabia Relations With The U.s. Post-cold War Era,

Before the cold war, Saudi-American relations had had the dual meanings of politics and economics. During the Cold War, the relatively stable strategic cooperation relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States was based on the former' s abundant oil reserves, the strategic position of bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and Saudi safety predicament also made it stand with the United States. Both of them contained the permeation of soviet communism, combated together the expansion of Arabian radical influence .At the same time, Saudi Arabia cooperated with the United States politically, militarily, economically and etc. However,Palestinian problem always became the discord between the two states'relations.At the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s,the world situation changed greatly. The two polar patterns broke up, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and the United States has become the global only superpower. Therefore, different contradictions previously concealed under two polar patterns surfaced. A case in point was the Gulf War, which established the U.S.leading position in the Middle East. Through this, a safe system lead by the U.S. has been established, Saudi Arabia has become an important link of it. During the post Cold War times, Saudi Arabia permitted the U.S.to station troops in her territory, relies on American to defend her state sovereignty, territory integrity and family rule, and to resist neighbor countries' invasion .By this way, they has formed a strategic alliance relationship. They continue to cooperate in political, military, security ,economic areas and so on. In particular, their corporations are very important for attacking the terrorism. But,Palestinian problem and the behaviors of Islamic fundamentalism do damage this kind of relations. Especially after terrorism, extremism and national secessionisms have become the non-symmetrical enemies of world countries; the conservative powers that have disagreed the Saudi-American ties have launched a series of anti-American acts. These acts not only bring great pressure to Saudi family, also obstacles to the Saudi-American ties. Sept 11 incident in 2001 and the Iraq war in 2003 have damaged this relationship. Yet, Saudi-American relations has lasted more than seventy years. Saudi Arabia has chosen to form an alliance with America whose ideology is completely different from its. This is the appliance of theory of practical diplomacy ,from the point of international relation theory, at the same time , it reflects the interdependence ininternational relations. The difference in ideology inevitably causes the civilization conflict. But from the point of the exchange of civilizations, it is a necessary way of learning, understanding and communicating each other. At last, it will bring about the fusion of civilizations. In the long run, Saudi -America relations can not be excluded.