Too much leadership for such a region: The competing status-seeking behaviours of Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia after 2011 (original) (raw)

On March 2018, the ambitious Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), declared that a “triangle of evil” was affecting the stability of the Middle East, namely Iran, Turkey and Islamist groups. Even though Saudi embassy in Ankara later denied that affirmation, it raised the question: why Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey are proactively engaging in the regional turmoil, such as Syria, and, more recently, Qatar? This article supports that the three countries aspire the same goal, regional leadership, explained by their growing status-seeking behaviour. Iran has been a revisionist country since the Revolution; however, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, especially under the assertive and vigorous rule of Erdogan and MBS respectively, are showing dissatisfaction with their ascribed status in the regional system. This article’s goal is to understand their status-seeking behaviour as three peer competitors in the same status community. They try to project images of leadership that are antagonistic or mutually exclusive. The fact that Turkey’s foreign policy fluctuates and does not choose a side in the open rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia further support this logic. I apply Neoclassical Realism as a comprehensive theoretical framework and process tracing as the main method to detect and describe the status-seeking behaviours. In conclusion, I intend to show that these countries had for a long time aimed for some regional leadership and that they saw the Arab Uprisings and the ambiguous US’ conduct in the region since 2011 as an opportunity to seek for more leadership status. Article presented at IMEIS Annual Conference 2018 on "Identity, Legitimacy and Power in the Muslim World", pages 90-105