Who leads the US' relationship with Gulf States?

Alexandra Stark wrote for Inkstick on the United States' relationships with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are supposed to be important US security partners, a relationship that in theory ought to have mutual benefits. This is why recent reports of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s very public visit to the UAE, Saudi Arabia’s talks with China about pricing some of its oil to China’s currency, the UAE’s abstention from a UN Security Council vote condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and both partners’ unwillingness to pick up the phone, are particularly shocking.

Over the past several decades, the US has firmly committed to its Gulf security partners, stationing US personnel at bases in the region, selling these countries advanced weapons, and providing military training, maintenance, and other forms of support. In exchange for this support, the US has tried to use these security partnerships in service of the strategic goals of stabilizing oil markets, fighting terrorism, and deterring Iran.

It’s not clear that these security partnerships have furthered these strategic aims. But at the same time, the state of the relationships themselves — rather than these strategic ends — have increasingly become the goal of US foreign policy in the region. To put it succinctly, the means have become the ends. And that needs to change.