What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

I get the sense that there is some behind-the-scenes diplomacy going on that has far-reaching potential for great outcomes.

US recently announced expanded oil/gas drilling on US continental shelf; and new tax bill also allowed for exploration in Arctic Reserve.
Tillerson probably fully aware of power of US flooding market with supply to constrain Russia and Iran by containing what they can get in the market for their oil and gas.
Was Saudi Arabia notified in advance?
Note how new Crown Prince has been working to introduce moderation in Saudi Arabian society; he even announced a more tolerant form of Islam to be promoted going forward.*
Meanwhile, Trump's announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital helps marginalize Palestinians even further: now, they either accept Israel's right to exist or be left totally behind: this move helps set the stage for a Saudi-Israel alliance against Iran.





*
Saudi leaders, spurred by the need to diversify the oil-dependent economy, are moving faster than any of their predecessors to unravel the legacy of Islamic conservatism that had taken hold of the country four decades ago and shaped the education of generations.

Spearheading the transformation is 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who sees social liberalization as a vital part of his radical economic modernization plan and has vowed to return his country to a more tolerant form of Islam.

“We are only going back to how we were: to the tolerant, moderate Islam that is open to the world, to all the religions and traditions of its people,” Prince Mohammed said during an investment conference in Riyadh in October.

....

Last year, the government also began sending teachers abroad to see how Western schools function, a step partly aimed at tackling extremism among educators.

“We are moving in a new direction for education and a new direction for the country,” said Saudi Education Minister Ahmed al-Eissa. He added that new textbooks, scrubbed of vitriol, will be rolled out in the next academic year.

In 2016, the Saudi government stripped the religious police of its power to arrest, the most consequential result of the eroding alliance between the monarchy and the clerical establishment.

The Muslim World League—a body that was once the key vehicle through which Saudi Arabia spread Wahhabi ideology beyond its border—is now led by a moderate cleric, who says promoting greater understanding among faiths is a priority.

“In 1979 our religion was hijacked,” said Sheikh Mohammed al-Issa, a former minister of justice, who in a gesture of tolerance routinely encourages the non-Muslim women he meets to remove their headscarves, “Now we are eradicating the roots of extremism.”
Click to expand...
 
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

FreshFish said:
I get the sense that there is some behind-the-scenes diplomacy going on that has far-reaching potential for great outcomes.

US recently announced expanded oil/gas drilling on US continental shelf; and new tax bill also allowed for exploration in Arctic Reserve.
Tillerson probably fully aware of power of US flooding market with supply to constrain Russia and Iran by containing what they can get in the market for their oil and gas.
Was Saudi Arabia notified in advance?
Note how new Crown Prince has been working to introduce moderation in Saudi Arabian society; he even announced a more tolerant form of Islam to be promoted going forward.*
Meanwhile, Trump's announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital helps marginalize Palestinians even further: now, they either accept Israel's right to exist or be left totally behind: this move helps set the stage for a Saudi-Israel alliance against Iran.
Click to expand...

Holy non sequitur Batman!
 
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

Slap Shot said:
Holy non sequitur Batman!
Click to expand...

"Saudis jettison Palestinians in secret alliance with Israel to take down Iranian mullahs, knowing US will be using low-cost oil as geopolitical weapon, and Saudis accept the need to diversify away from oil in order to take down Iran. To diversify from oil they will need foreign assistance and so they will bring Islam into the modern world in order to get it."
 
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

Do foreign policy nerds wake up at night in a cold sweat over what would result from a revolution in SA, or do we have some cajones in our hands on that one.
 
burd said:
Do foreign policy nerds wake up at night in a cold sweat over what would result from a revolution in SA, or do we have some cajones in our hands on that one.
Click to expand...

Should we care? Are the days of "He may be a dictator, but he's OUR dictator" over?
 
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

burd said:
Do foreign policy nerds wake up at night in a cold sweat over what would result from a revolution in SA, or do we have some cajones in our hands on that one.
Click to expand...

joecct said:
Should we care? Are the days of "He may be a dictator, but he's OUR dictator" over?
Click to expand...

This will seem dense, joe, but what do you mean?
 
Re: US Foreign Policy 2.0: Have you read Kipling, Mr. Tillerson?

joecct said:
Why should we wake up in a sweat? We used to, but is it in our national interests these days.
Click to expand...

We have looked the other way when it was "our dictator," and I assume we will continue to do that out of self interest. I'm just wondering if, in this modern climate of some pretty radical political changes, experts grow pale at the thought of a major change in SA. It has strategic importance in so many ways. I doubt many predicted what happened to our guy in Iran in 1979 and, more recently, few predicted Brexit, the spontaneous uprisings in North Africa, or even Trump.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top