This article is devoted to the regional policy of Saudi Arabia in 2015—2022. The main purpose of the article is to trace and analyze the causes and prerequisites that influenced the change in the KSA’s foreign policy course during the period under review. This topic is very relevant both from a scientific and practical point of view due to the fact that Saudi Arabia is one of the leaders not only of the Middle East region, but also of the Muslim world as a whole. The KSA’s foreign policy steps and initiatives determine the political agenda of the region, affect regional security and economic relations. Before the events of the “Arab Spring”, the actions of the KSA in foreign policy were based on its religious authority and economic power, but then Saudi Arabia put at the head of its foreign policy concept its own national interests rather than those of the Muslim community. Of course, the change in the foreign policy paradigm of the KSA is associated with numerous domestic and foreign policy factors, but also with the influence of the ideas of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is not only associated in the world community with the search for a new place for the monarchy in the world, but is also the author of the country’s economic transformation strategy “Vision: 2030”, the emphasis on the implementation of which has been made in Saudi Arabia since 2016.
Acknowledgements: the article was made within the framework of RFBR grant No. 20-014-00039A “Models and risks of cooperation in the Middle East region in the first quarter of the XXI century”.
For citation:
Borodina M.Yu., Ryzhov I.V., Savicheva E.M. Transformation of the KSA foreign policy course in the Middle East 2015—2022, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2022, iss. 2, pp. 81—93.