WASHINGTON, May 26 (UPI) -- The United States has maintained a close relationship with Saudi Arabia for almost 60 years but, contrary to popular belief, the relationship has not been simply about oil, according to a recently released book by a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"No relationship is as important, as under pressure and as poorly understood ... as the U.S.-Saudi relationship," said Rachel Bronson, who is also the director for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In "Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia," Bronson explores the intimate relationship between the United States and the desert kingdom. She challenges common misconceptions and reveals a deeper history behind the complex and often controversial partnership between the two nations.
At a discussion hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., Thursday Bronson traced the foundation of the partnership to shared interests during the Cold War, rather than to an exchange of oil for security.
"In a unique division of labor, the United States battled communism while the Saudis took on godlessness," Bronson said. "The two interests overlapped ... and they were able to work together."
In fact, Bronson said, the United States strongly relied on the theocratic Saudi Arabians to counter the emergent secular nationalism during the 1950s and 1960s. As a result, they engaged in "a global strategy to fight communism," she explained.
Then, in the 1980s, the U.S.-Saudi Arabian alliance grew even stronger when Saudi Arabia joined the Reagan administration's attempt to defeat communism around the globe, Bronson said. Afghanistan is the best-known example, she said, adding that similar efforts were made in South Asia and Africa.
The very nature of such a relationship, however, was the reason it began to fall apart when the Cold War ended, Bronson said.
"There was no longer any overarching strategic rational to keep the two states together," she explained.
As evidence of the deterioration, Bronson cited a letter sent by then Crown Prince Abdullah to President Bush in 2001 that suggested the two states separate as a result of their disagreements over the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The United States attempted to salvage the relationship and arranged a meeting for Sept. 13, 2001, but the World Trade Center attacks occurred two days earlier and the meeting was cancelled, she said.
Bronson said that in the last few years, tension between the United States and Saudi Arabia has escalated and put pressure on the partnership. In her book, she details these challenges, which include instability in Iraq, a confident Iran, an oil-guzzling China and anti-Americanism within Saudi Arabia.
But, despite the basis of the relationship and the problems it now encounters, Bronson insisted the relationship is still crucial for the United States and Saudi Arabia, particularly in terms of oil provision and fighting terrorism. As a result, strong efforts to bring the states together have continued since 2001, she said.
"The administration perceived warming relations with the Saudis over the last few years," Bronson said. "It is their belief that Saudi Arabia is moving in the right direction ... by revamping their domestic charity laws, cracking down on radical clerics and sharing their information with the FBI."
