عنوان

Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia:

Number

TLpq2486167587

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia:

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Wilson, Thomas Keith

Title Proper by Another Author

Elites, Power-Sharing, and a Domestic Politics Explanation of Rivalry Fluctuation

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Thompson, William R.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Indiana University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2020

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

515

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Indiana University

Text preceding or following the note

2020

Text of Note

Rivalries are a unique class of relationships responsible for most of the interstate conflict around the world. Change to behavior between the beginning and end of these relationships, however, has received relatively little attention. Existing work on rivalry fluctuation tends to incorporate a minimalist approach to internal dynamics or find domestic politics unnecessary to explaining behavior. In this study, I reorient familiar mechanisms into a domestic-centric model focused on decision-makers and institutions. In doing so, I reconsider whether or to what extent internal dynamics explain levels of conflict and cooperation in strategic rivalries. I evaluate the utility of a domestic framework using a most likely case design-Iran's rivalry with Saudi Arabia from 1979-2015. Applying an approach that includes descriptive event data, content analysis of event data source material and area studies literature, I find that shocks trigger a domestic process in which elites possess the capacity to generate rivalry output in accordance with bargaining space available and the unique operating rules of institutions. This capacity is shaped by issue-type and influenced by regime-type characteristics. At least for electoral authoritarian regimes, actors have space to drive cooperation even in entrenched conflict-prone relationships as regime power-sharing increases and states operate further from direct external threat. It appears, however, that both escalation and de-escalation may be complicated by higher-power sharing levels in electoral authoritarian regimes. The potential scope conditions this project offers contributes to work in building reliable middle ground theory in the rivalry research area and offers potential research and policy benefit on matters of rivalry war and peace.

International relations

Middle Eastern studies

Thompson, William R.

Wilson, Thomas Keith

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y