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| Volume X, Winter 2003, Number 4 |
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| EXCERPT: U.S. Saudi Relations: Bump in the Road or End of the Road? |
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| Rockefeller Foundation Report |
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The following report of a Saudi-American dialogue held at Bellagio, Italy, June 2-6, 2003, was written by Clifford Chanin and F. Gregory Gause, III. Mr. Chanin is president of The Legacy Project and Dr. Gause is an associate professor at the University of Vermont.
HOW WE SEE EACH OTHER
In June 2003, the Rockefeller Foundation convened a conference on relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, as part of its longstanding efforts to encourage dialogue on critical global issues. The conference, "U.S.-Saudi Relations: Bump in the Road or End of the Road?" brought together 20 prominent Saudis and Americans at the Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center.
The dialogue revealed how much the events of the last three years have shaped mutual perceptions in both countries, and how negative these perceptions have become. A relationship that for many years had largely been conducted out of public view has now become a major focus of attention in both countries. Though the Saudi and American participants disagreed on many critical questions, they did recognize that a long period of relatively untroubled bilateral relations had come to an end. Seemingly long-settled mutual interests are facing -- and likely will continue to face -- greater scrutiny from the media and the public in both countries.
Though tensions had occasionally marked U.S.-Saudi relations, particularly in differences over the Arab-Israeli conflict, these were generally submerged in much larger areas of agreement. The traditional Saudi-American relationship has been described as a grand bargain: Saudi oil for American security guarantees. Though the logic of this bargain remains powerful, doubts on each side about dependence on the other have weakened its compelling power. Do Americans have better options for their oil supply? Is Saudi security now undermined -- rather than reinforced -- by a reliance on the United States? Previously unimaginable questions have gained a serious currency in discussion of the relationship.
Certainly, participants agreed, the events of 9/11 mark a critical turning point in the relationship. Yet the Saudis and the Americans viewed the consequences of these events with different shadings. For the Americans, the attacks were transformative, exposing vulnerabilities that had not been recognized, and redefining American security needs. For the Saudis, the attacks were the culmination of a sharp deterioration in both American foreign policy and in Arab politics. There was no disagreement about the unjustifiable horror of the attacks; there were starkly different perceptions of whether these attacks had come out of the blue.
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