Foreign policy in Iran and Saudi Arabia: economics and diplomacy in the Middle East. By Robert Mason

Abstract

At first glance, a reader might be forgiven for thinking that Robert Mason's book on foreign policy in Saudi Arabia and Iran holds great topicality and relevance, given the marked deterioration in ties between Riyadh and Tehran since 2015. Moreover, the rapid changes both in Saudi foreign policy, which has become far more assertive and unilateralist, and in the Iranian relationship with the international community following the election of Hassan Rouhani as president, offer fruitful pickings for any academic research into the evolving nature of Saudi—Iran ties. Unfortunately, Mason has produced instead a rambling account that is hard to follow, that is already out of date, and that reflects the doctoral dissertation it started life as, rather than a polished academic publication. All books have a considerable time lag between being written and eventual publication but, for a book that came out in 2015, it is surprising that the cut-off date for the material Mason includes seems to be 2012. There is nothing in the chapter on Iranian foreign policy that even hints at a change in policy post-Ahmadinejad, while there is only the briefest of mentions (p. 67 and p. 82) of the Arab uprisings, the impact of which impelled the ageing leadership in Saudi Arabia to demonstrate unprecedented muscularity in regional affairs. For a PhD dissertation submitted in 2012, Mason had ample time to extensively revise and update his thesis prior to publication, yet this does not appear to have happened. Instead, the reader is left with assertions such as ‘sanctions may raise the cost of Iran's nuclear programme in order for it to be no longer in its national interests, but these costs will be offset by the Iranian “economic jihad”’ (p. 135), a statement that not only is left unexplained but also is of little use to a post-2013 readership.