2000s Samet Relations Iraq Factor

Before Iraq war, in response to common threat,Saudi and United Statesmaintained and developed bilateral relations steadily. After the "9.11" incident, thepotential structural contradictions existed in Saudi and US. were intensified, whichshaken the foundation of mutual trust. With the outbreak of the Iraq war, the Iraqifactor spread to the entire Middle East and presented mainly as follows: the Iraq warpoke core of deep-rooted contradictions, like opening a "Pandora " of chaos in theMiddle East. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, sectarian violence, terrorist activitiesinside Iraq, as well as further intensification; the survival and development ofenvironment improved for Iran, other Shiite ruling nation and other terroristorganizations; and democratic transformation of Iraq continue to promote andexpand the influence of political Islamic movement; much suppressed social conflictsand political forces quickly released. This paper attempts to introduce Iraq as a thirdparty factor into the research framework of Sau.-US. relations and discusses theimpact of factors on Sau.-US. relations.Under the situation of Iraq factor fermenting, Faced with the threats from ShiiteIslam and terrorism, the US and Saudi Arabia have put aside their differences andreturned to traditional cooperative model under the guide of realistic interests. In thisprocess, Iraq War intrigued a series of "systematic effect".The spillover of Iraq factor,on the one hand, formed new challenge to Saudi-US relations, on the other hand,erased some lesions of bilateral relations. Common threat to both countries was agood "doctor", which diffused Saudi-US conflicts and put forward the balance ofMiddle East even Far East to a new security configuration. It is worth noting that thespecial alliance between Saudi Arabia and US has its uncertain structural risk, so thecoordination mechanism is often derived from new common threat. Althoughcommon threat could adjust the special alliance relations between both sides, once itwas out of control, common threat would damage its limit and relations. So it is veryimportant for managing and controlling the common threat to maintain Saudi Arabiaand US special alliance relations.