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<JournalTitle>ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES</JournalTitle>
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<Volume-Issue>Volume 5 Issue 1</Volume-Issue>
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<IssueTopic>Multidisciplinary</IssueTopic>
<IssueLanguage>English</IssueLanguage>
<Season>Apr-May 2024</Season>
<SpecialIssue>N</SpecialIssue>
<SupplementaryIssue>N</SupplementaryIssue>
<IssueOA>Y</IssueOA>
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<Year>2024</Year>
<Month>05</Month>
<Day>31</Day>
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<ArticleType>International Relations</ArticleType>
<ArticleTitle>Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar’s Quest for Power in the Arab Gulf: Role of Ideational Factors and Economic Rivalry in Diverging Foreign Policy Choices</ArticleTitle>
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<ArticleLanguage>English</ArticleLanguage>
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<FirstPage>4</FirstPage>
<LastPage>23</LastPage>
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<Author>
<FirstName>Afifa</FirstName>
<LastName>Iqbal</LastName>
<AuthorLanguage>English</AuthorLanguage>
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<DOI>10.47362/EJSSS.2024.5101</DOI>
<Abstract>In a quest to emerge as the Arab Gulf’s ‘Top Gun’, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are striving to maintain a balance of power while simultaneously making concerted efforts at curbing Qatar’s political and strategic outreach in the region. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, two major Arab powers, often depict synchronicity in their foreign policies but Saudi’s reluctance to relinquish its status of dominance and the underlying quest for an influential political and economic position have turned Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, into rival allies, opting for diverging foreign policy choices in the Middle East and abroad. Pursuing a bold and unconventional foreign policy in the region, Qatar’s linkages with regional militias, its close proximity to Turkey, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood are the significant drivers of its approach to regional politics. The contrasting policies of Abu Dhabi and Doha towards the Muslim Brotherhood, the role of political Islam and cross-culturalism in the Arab World have long served as the bone of contention. However, depicting a pacifist stance towards political Islam, the Saudi-Qatar rivalry is mostly strategic in nature. This paper adopts a comparative approach to understand the foreign policy choices, influencing the behavioral patterns of the three contending actors in the Gulf. Drawing upon the role of ideational factors, strategic aspirations and the role of external actors namely the U.S., Turkey, and Iran, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the persisting security dilemma and the quest for relative gains among Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha driven by the notion of security and survival in an anarchic international system.</Abstract>
<AbstractLanguage>English</AbstractLanguage>
<Keywords>Arab Gulf, Foreign policy, Security dilemma, Economic rivalry, Balance of power, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam.</Keywords>
<URLs>
<Abstract>https://ejsss.net.in/ubijournal-v1copy/journals/abstract.php?article_id=15208&title=Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar’s Quest for Power in the Arab Gulf: Role of Ideational Factors and Economic Rivalry in Diverging Foreign Policy Choices</Abstract>
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<References>
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<ReferencesfirstPage>16</ReferencesfirstPage>
<ReferenceslastPage>19</ReferenceslastPage>
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