Thesis (PHD) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research International Relations Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 267-322)

ABSTRACT Over the past four decades, Saudi Iranian relations were characterized by a geopolitical and ideological rivalry that remains a constant element of a dual strategy of cooperation and confrontation. In the aftermath of 'the Arab Uprisings', Iran and Saudi Arabia played a prominent role that impacted the Middle East regional order facing turmoil, change, and an undeclared multilayered 'Cold War'. It is in this context that this research is investigating the securitization of the 'threat' of ('Saudi Arabia and its 'Sunni identity and Wahhabism ideology) and (Iran and its Shia identity and Khomeinism ideology) led by Iran and Saudi Arabia's speech acts. Almost no research has touched on the drive toward Iran and Saudi Arabia rivalry from the perspective of 'securitization' of identity-based on the Copenhagen school's approach. The novelty of this thesis is the attention it pays to the involvement of trans-border non-state actors as referent objects. This thesis examines the role of the audience in the process of securitization. Previous studies have focused on the state's securitization in relation to domestic audiences in the country itself. However, this study aims to broaden the state's scope in the direction of non-state actors' audiences in a third country. Additionally, the thesis examines how those two rival state actors succeeded in defining two different models in the post-2011 struggle for re-shaping the regional order in their favor? This thesis uses a qualitative descriptive-analytical case study research method and data collection to explore the 'securitization' of identity as an independent variable and the political behavior of the two regional rivals as a dependent variable. Beyond the reductive interpretation of the Saudi Iranian rivalry stemming from a 'sectarian' split between Shia and Sunni, this thesis argues that it is instead all about competition for regional leadership. Iran and Saudi Arabia construed their respective foreign policies as a 'threat' to each other, delegitimizing thus their regional ambitions. In Iraq and Syria, Saudis thought they could roll back Iranian influence. The same is true for Iran in Bahrain and Yemen. The complex fragility of Middle Eastern states reveals the cogency of the interplay between domestic, regional, and international politics ('intermestics'). Finally, due to the decades-long rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a post-Arab uprisings' reconfiguration of the regional order is gradually emerging, and it may be described as a contested structure in flux.