The Impact of International Social Capital on Iran and Saudi Arabia Relations after the Islamic Revolution

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia as two effective and powerful countries in the Middle East has had ups and downs from close cooperation with each other to cutting of diplomatic ties in years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In this research, investigating the existing literature on Iran and Saudi Arabia relations, has been used “International Social Capital” as a new theoretical framework to understand and explain reasons of fluctuation in relations between the countries. The main question is, what impact has had international social capital on Iran and Saudi Arabia relations in the years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran? In order to response the question, reviewing and analyzing primary and secondary sources, it is tried to understand conceptual and theoretical foundations of the framework first, then will be measured the scale of international social capital of the countries based on the quantitative data, and finally will be focused on the impact of international social capital dimensions on relations between the countries. Results show that to what extend correlation between international social capital on one hand and Iran and Saudi Arabia relationships on the other hand is meaningful.