ABSTRACT
The Middle Eastern geopolitics pushes for an expansion of topics to cover in the study of International Relations beyond the traditional subjects. This chapter explains that the Middle East is fertile soil also for studies that aim to address foreign policy questions with theoretical points-of-view that focus on identities and non-material variables. The importance of identity in Middle Eastern countries is broadly recognized. Saudi Arabia has always projected itself as a conservative status quo country in a region that is marked by the recurrent emergence of different revisionist voices that challenge the regional order. The interest of creating unity among those Arab monarchies is related to the encirclement crisis and the omnibalancing demands. The chapter focuses on how crucial the United States and the Gulf Arabic countries are for understanding two determinants of Saudi’s international behaviour: its encirclement syndrome and its omnibalanced foreign policy.
