|
Saudi Arabia is a non-aligned state whose stated foreign policy objectives are to maintain its security and its paramount position on the Arabian Peninsula, and as the world's largest oil-exporter, to maintain cooperative relations with other oil-producing and major oil-consuming countries. Saudi Arabian stated policy is focused on co-operation with the oil-exporting Gulf states, the unity of the Arab world, Islamic strength and solidarity, and support for the United Nations (UN).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Request Rejected )〕 In practice, the main concerns in recent years have been relations with the US, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iraq, the perceived threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the effect of oil pricing, and using its oil wealth to increase the influence of Islam and especially the conservative school of Islam supported by the country's rulers (known as Wahhabism). Saudi Arabia contributes large amounts of development aid to Muslim countries. From 1986 to 2006, the country donated £49 billion in aid.〔(‘Saudis donate aid to non-Muslims' ) ''The Telegraph'', 26 March 2006〕 Although a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Saudi Arabia has been described as leading the “Pro-Western Camp” of Arab countries, aligned with the U.S. and composed of Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states. Islam is the main religion of Saudi.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Saudi Arabia )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Saudi Arabia )〕 As a founding member of OPEC, Saudi Arabia's long-term oil pricing policy has been to keep prices stable and moderate—high enough to earn large amounts of revenue, but not so high as to encourage alternative energy sources among oil importers, or jeopardise the economies of Western countries where many of its financial assets are located and which provide political and military support for the Saudi government.〔 The major exception to this occurred during the 1973 oil crisis when Saudi Arabia, with the other Arab oil states, used an embargo on oil supplies to pressure the US to stop supporting Israel.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Oil Embargo, 1973–1974 - 1969–1976 - Milestones - Office of the Historian )〕 Saudi Arabia is a founding member of several multinational organizations, including OPEC, the United Nations, the Arab League. It is also a founding member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Muslim World League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Islamic Development Bank—all of which are headquartered in Saudi. The country plays a prominent role in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and in 2005 joined the World Trade Organisation. ==History== After the World War II and during the Cold War, Saudi Arabia maintained an anti-Communist, anti-secular Arab nationalist policy, often working with the leading anti-Communist power, the United States. Following the 1973 oil crisis, where Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil exporters embargoed the United States and its allies for their support of Israel, oil revenues increased dramatically and it worked to become the leading Islamic state, spending generously to advance Islam and particularly its conservative school (known as Wahhabism). The effect has been to purify and unify Islamic faith, according to supporters, and to erode regional Islamic cultures, according to others. (Examples of the acculturizing effect of Saudi aid can be seen among the Minangkabau and the Acehnese in Indonesia, as well as among the people of the Maldives.〔Ricklefs, M.C. ''A history of modern Indonesia since c.1200''. Stanford. 2001 Stanford University Press.〕〔Abdullah, Taufik. ''Adat and Islam: An Examination of Conflict in Minangkabau''. 1966.〕〔Indonesia's Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. 2003. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.〕〔Xavier Romero-Frias, ''The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom''. 1999, ISBN 84-7254-801-5〕 The Wahhabi form of Islam is also perceived in the West as being a source of Islamist extremism〔) Saudi Arabia and its oil policy are thought to have contributed to the downfall of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990. Saudi helped to finance not just the Afghan Mujahideen but non-Muslims anti-communists. It also seriously harmed the Soviet Communist cause by stabilizing oil prices "throughout the 1980s, just when the Russians were desperate to sell energy in order to keep up with huge hikes in American military spending." Following King Fahd's stroke in 1995, Abdullah, then Crown Prince, assumed responsibility for foreign policy. A marked change in U.S.-Saudi relations occurred, as Abdullah sought to put distance between his policies and the unpopular pro-Western policies of King Fahd. Abdullah took a more independent line from the US and concentrated on improving regional relations, particularly with Iran. Several long-standing border disputes were resolved, including significantly reshaping the border with Yemen. The new approach resulted in increasingly strained relations with the US.〔 In 2003, Abdullah's new policy was reflected in the Saudi government's refusal to support or to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Some US critics saw this as an attempt by the royal family to placate the kingdom’s Islamist radicals. That same year Saudi and U.S. government officials agreed to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Saudi soil. Since ascending to the throne in 2005, King Abdullah has followed a more activist foreign policy and has continued to push-back on US policies which are unpopular in Saudi Arabia (for example, refusing to provide material assistance to support the new Iraqi government).〔〔(‘Abdullah’s no reformer’ ) Foreign Policy, 28 June 2010〕 However, increasingly, in common with the US, fear and mistrust of Iran] is becoming a significant factor in Saudi policy. In 2010, the whistle blowing website Wikileaks disclosed various confidential documents revealing that King Abdullah urged the U.S. to attack Iran in order to "cut off the head of the snake". Relations with the US and other Western countries have been further strained by the perception that Saudi Arabia has been a source of Islamist terrorist activity, not just internally, but also world-wide. Osama bin Laden and 15 out of the 19 September 11 attacks hijackers were Saudi nationals, though some officials argue that this was planned deliberately by bin Laden in an attempt to strain U.S.-Saudi relations, and former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey described Saudi Arabian Wahhabism as "the soil in which al-Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are flourishing."〔'Fueling Terror', Institute for the Analysis of Global Terror, http://www.iags.org/fuelingterror.html〕 Some in the U.S. Government also believe that the royal family, through its long and close relations with Wahhabi clerics, had laid the groundwork for the growth of militant groups like al-Qaeda and that after the attacks had done little to help track the militants or prevent future atrocities.〔 As announced at the 2009 Arab League summit, Saudi Arabia is intending to participate in the Arab Customs Union to be established in 2015 and an Arab common market to be established by 2020.〔 Following the wave of early 2011 protests and revolutions affecting the Arab world, Saudi Arabia offered asylum to deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and King Abdullah telephoned President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (prior to his deposition) to offer his support.〔(“Egypt Protests could spread to other countries” ) The Guardian, 31 January 2011, Retrieved 21 February 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|