Saudi Arabia’s political conduct in the Middle East

During the political turmoil that has marked the Middle East since December 2010 (the Arab Spring), Saudi Arabia has distinguished itself by its conduct. It broke with its established image of attachment to the status quo, rejection of disruption and declared non-violence in its external relations, and decided to adopt a clearly offensive stance, committing itself to a process with significant repercussions. The following account attempts to analyse the political conduct of this actor during this period, tracing its past and present trajectory in order to characterise its political conduct, explain the whys and wherefores, and highlight the repercussions. To this end, the political events that have profoundly marked the regional space have been invoked in order to decipher the interactions with the actor under study, recall the issues at stake, identify the different positions of the various actors, and clarify the complexities that continue and will continue to shape his foreign policy, that of other actors, and the Middle East space.