Terrorism and Democratization in U.S. Foreign Policy towards the Persian Gulf after September 11th: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

The September 11th events left a serious impact on U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East in general and the Persian Gulf region in particular. In this respect, Western analysts ascribe the causes of rise and spread of terrorist activities as well as anti-American movements to an amalgamation of three factors: 1- Despotic nature of political systems in Arab societies; 2- Anti-American fundamentalist thoughts; and 3- Unpopularity of U.S. Middle East policies and its unconditional support for authoritarian Arab regimes in the region during the Cold War era. In this relation, American neoconservatives argued that terrorism could be uprooted by promoting Western democracy followed by dominance of value relativism, disseminating modern thoughts and providing welfare thus weakening the absolutist nature of fundamentalist ideas. On this basis, democratization strategy and fostering Western values were included on the agenda of U.S. policy-makers in order to fight terrorism. It is noteworthy that numerous criticisms have been made on U.S. forceful democratization by regional researchers and Western scholars.