SUUDİ ARABİSTAN'DA DIŞ POLİTİKA DEĞİŞİMİ VE "YENİ MİLLİYETÇİLİK" (2015-2023): ROL TEORİK BİR YAKLAŞIM

Since the Arab Uprisings of 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have experienced profound political and strategic transformations that increasingly blur the boundaries between domestic governance and foreign policy. This dissertation situates Saudi Arabia at the center of this regional reconfiguration, arguing that the Gulf has emerged as a new center of Arab power following the decline of traditional Arab political hubs. While early Saudi activism after 2011 largely reflected familiar threat perceptions and defensive patterns, the period after 2015 marks a clear rupture in the Kingdom’s foreign policy trajectory. This study contends that Saudi Arabia’s shift toward a more assertive, interventionist, and proactive foreign policy is closely linked to the consolidation of political authority under King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). The rapid centralization of decision-making, coupled with weakened institutional constraints, has elevated leadership perceptions and preferences to a decisive role in shaping foreign policy behavior. Through military interventions, coercive diplomacy toward neighboring Gulf states, and recalibrated regional alignments, Saudi Arabia has increasingly sought to assert itself as a dominant Arab and regional power. Adopting a role theoretical framework, the dissertation examines how national role conceptions are redefined, enacted, and adjusted under conditions of concentrated leadership. It further argues that foreign policy change in Saudi Arabia cannot be understood without accounting for the emergence of a state-led, elite-driven nationalist narrative after 2015. This “new nationalism” reconfigures Saudi identity and legitimacy, providing an ideational foundation that both reflects and enables foreign policy transformation. The dissertation thus demonstrates that leadership-driven nationalism and foreign policy change are mutually constitutive processes shaping Saudi Arabia’s evolving regional role.