President Biden's Visit to Saudi Arabia: Saudi-US Relations in Freefall

International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) from Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses developments in the Middle East, the Balkans and around the world. T-Fai Yeung, researcher at the Global Studies Institute Hong Kong, prepared analysis entitled "President Biden's Visit to Saudi Arabia: Saudi-US Relations in Freefall" in which he analyses the visit of US President Biden to Saudi Arabia.

In July of this year, Joseph Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia for the first time as US president. It is well known that the primary goal of the trip was to persuade Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to alleviate the pressure caused by soaring global energy prices. Yet, it is worth remembering that when Biden punished Saudi Arabia for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2019, he described it as a "pariah" country, adding that he had no short-term plans to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. It is therefore unsurprising that Biden received fierce criticism, not only for failing to encourage Saudi Arabia to increase oil production but also for fist bumping MBS. Nevertheless, some argue that the criticism is unwarranted. After all, it was the West as a whole that put Biden in such an awkward position. 

Biden's Recalibration of Saudi Policy Criticized by both Realists and Moralists 

Simply put, political leaders - as often stated in the past IFIMES analysis - regularly face the dilemma of either preserving their nation's interests or upholding morality when handling international affairs. Realists tend to emphasize that...