Pivotal States: Is a Deeper Alliance With Saudi Arabia Worth It?

The United States has few partners more controversial than Saudi Arabia. Yet the country’s influence in the Middle East and over global oil supplies have made the Kingdom a key emerging power for the United States, despite its repressive authoritarian regime and abhorrent human rights record. Now, as the war in Gaza rages on, the Biden administration aims to stabilize the Middle East and push back on Chinese influence in the region. Their strategy includes signing a defense treaty with Riyad and supporting a civil nuclear program as means of facilitating Israeli-Saudi normalization and progress toward a Palestinian state.

What would this mean for America and its interests in the region? What are the prospects for this grand three-way bargain; and what hidden costs is the United States likely to incur?

Please join the director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American Statecraft Program, Christopher S. Chivvis, for the next edition the Pivotal States series and a discussion of Washington’s strategic alternatives in its policy toward Saudi Arabia with Ambassador Dennis Ross, Kim Ghattas, and Aaron David Miller.

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