{"product_id":"a-self-fulfilling-prophecy-the-saudi-struggle-for-iraq-9780197631324","title":"A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Saudi Struggle for Iraq","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Katherine Harvey | Bruce Riedel\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: World - Middle Eastern\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn recent years, the geopolitical rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has dominated the headlines. Many have charted the polarization between a Saudi-led Sunni camp and an Iranian-led Shia one, assuming that a predominantly Shia state like Iraq would automatically ally with Iran. In this compelling account, Katherine Harvey tells a different story: Iraq's alignment with Iran was not a foregone conclusion. Rather, Saudi efforts to undermine Iran have paradoxically empowered it.\u003cbr\u003eHarvey investigates why the Saudis refused to engage with Iraq's post-2003 Shia-led government, despite continual outreach by Iraq's new leaders and considerable pressure from the United States. She finds that certain deeply ingrained assumptions predisposed Saudi leaders to see a Shia-led Iraq as naturally beholden to Iran: the view that Iran is inherently expansionist, and the belief that Arab Shia tend to be loyal to it. This outlook was simplistic, even downright inaccurate; and, in refusing to engage, the Saudis created a self-fulfilling prophecy. As Harvey demonstrates, members of Iraq's new government initially sought to establish a positive relationship with Saudi Arabia, and to pursue a course independent from Iran. But, isolated and rejected by Saudi King Abdullah, Iraq ultimately had nowhere else to turn.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atlantic Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46417292034199,"sku":"9780197631324","price":5754.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780197631324.webp?v=1769066981","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/a-self-fulfilling-prophecy-the-saudi-struggle-for-iraq-9780197631324","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}