Hypocrisy or simple realism: The double standards on Saudi Arabia and Russia



After the Salisbury poisonings in March 2018 the Conservative Party lined up to condemn Russia for it's 'aggressive actions.  Prime Minister Theresa May suggested that there was “a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression” (Asthana A  et al: 2018).   Later, in September 2018, as further details emerged about how the 'murder' was carried the Conservative Deputy Chairman,  James Cleverly MP suggested that “Our response must be both internationally coordinated and robust.” (Drearden 2018)) indicating that sanctions should be imposed against Russia for its actions on British soil. However, when asked on BBC Question Time on the 18th October, on how Britain should respond to Saudi Arabia's actions in relation to Khasoggi, he avoids the question suggesting that 'liberalisation' and 'increasing secularisation' is taking place so that credit should be given to the government.

 So why the double standards?  In 2017 £5.3 billion of good were exported to Russia compared to £6.1 billion of goods to Saudi Arabia. (ONS)  This indicates that economics are not the primary motivation.  There is however a strategic reason for maintaining good relations with Saudi Arabia.  The Saudis are a major power in the Middle East and Gulf region where the majority of the world's oil supplies are situated.  It is also a tinder box with several ongoing conflicts.  There is widespread and long standing military co-operation between the Saudis and the UK, with the UK selling arms to the regime and also training the Saudi armed forces.  The British Army also train Saudi Arabian Officers at Sandhurst.  However, perhaps the biggest area of co-operation appears to be in the area of counter terrorism where it is rumoured that Saudi intelligence has been utilised to halt several terror attacks on British soil. (Van Rij and Wilksinson 2018)

Saudi Arabia has been criticise on several occasions for its human rights record towards its own cit zens, particularly women and those who criticise the regime.  It  has also been criticised for its military's action in Yemen which has seen civilians targeted.  The Saudi Arabian regime is evidently not very pleasant and a threat to its neighbours and those who oppose it.  So why does our government maintain relations with it whilst imposing sanctions on Russia for arguably comparable actions?

In short, its because of a world view.  Realist international politics vs Liberalism.  The realist point of view sees conflict between nations as inevitable and the sovereignty of the nation state as sacrosanct.  It views the right of a nation state to secure its own borders and protect its own citizens as of primary importance.  What is clear is that Russia poses a direct threat to the British state whereas Saudi Arabia does not.  In fact, in terms of international security, Saudi Arabia benefits Britain.  Therefore a realist would argue that we need to keep Saudi Arabia close whatever the cost to other nations or peoples.  A person with a liberal point of view would argue that there needs to be some international standards and that human rights should be protected.  They would argue that we cannot just ignore the flagrant disregard for human rights simply because they happen to agree with us and that such hypocrisy merely undermines the international rule of law and leads to avoidable chaos as nations begin to act in purely self serving ways which will lead to further harm including us. 


Reading

  • Asthani A, Roth A, HArding L, MacAskill; (2018) Ehttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/12/russia-highly-likely-to-be-behind-poisoning-of-spy-says-theresa-may Guardian 2018 publish on 13th March accessed 19/10/18
  • Dearden L (2018) Independent 5th September 2018 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/salisbury-attack-suspects-russia-gru-theresa-may-novichok-sergei-skripal-poison-a8523851.html
  • van Rij A and Wilkinson B (2018) https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/publications/uk-saudi-arabia-security.pdf Kings College, London 
  • ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/internationaltrade/articles/whodoestheuktradewith/2017-02-21 Accessed 19/10/2018
  • BBC Question Time https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp3d24/question-time-2018-18102018#


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