Analysis of Gulf Arab States-China Political and Economic Relations from the Perspective of Neoclassical Realism

Abstract

This study examines the factors that have enabled the rapprochement between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) and the People’s Republic of China (China) in recent years. The GCC, a traditional ally of the West in general and the United States (US) in particular at the global level, has in recent years been on a path of rapprochement with China that could lead to a crisis in its relations with the US, a development that international policy researchers find difficult to explain within the current global order. Therefore, this situation, which marks important ruptures in global, local and regional politics, has brought to the surface an important problematic that needs to be resolved. In this context, this study, which claims that the deepening relations between the parties despite the US can be analyzed with a multilevel approach, seeks to answer the question “Why and how has the GCC been able to develop its relations with China, which has emer-ged as an important player in the world in general and in the Middle East in particular?”. In this framework, neoclassical realism, which offers a multi-level framework of analysis, will theoretically guide the study, while the process tracing method will be used to understand the political, economic and defense dimensions of the parties’ rapprochement preferences.

Keywords

• Gulf Cooperation Council
• United States
• China
• Systemic Factors
• Domestic Factors

Körfez Arap Ülkeleri ile Çin Arasındaki Siyasi ve Ekonomik İlişkilerin Neoklasik Realizm Perspektifinden Analizi

Öz

Bu çalışma, son yıllarda Körfez İşbirliği Konseyi (KİK) ülkeleri ile Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti (Çin) arasında yaşanan yakınlaşmayı mümkün kılan faktör-leri incelemektedir. Küresel düzeyde genelde Batı’nın, özelde ise Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin (ABD) geleneksel müttefiki olan KİK ülkelerinin son yıllarda ABD ile ilişkilerini krize sürükleyebilecek ölçüde Çin ile yakınlaşma yoluna girmeleri uluslararası politika araştırmacılarının mevcut küresel düzen içerisinde açıklamakta zorlandığı bir gelişme oldu. Dolayısıyla küresel, yerel ve bölgesel siyasette önemli kırılmalara işaret eden bu durum çözümlenmesi gereken önemli bir sorunsalı gün yüzüne çıkardı. Bu bağlamda ABD’ye rağmen taraflar arasında derinleşen ilişkilerin çok düzeyli bir yaklaşımla çözümlenebileceği iddiasında olan bu çalışma “KİK, genel olarak dünyada, özel ola-rak Ortadoğu’da önemli bir oyuncu olarak yükselen Çin ile ilişkilerini neden ve nasıl geliştirebildi?” sorusuna yanıt aramaktadır. Bu çerçevede çok düzeyli bir analiz çerçevesi sunan neoklasik realizm, çalışmaya teorik olarak rehberlik ederken, tarafların birbirlerine yakınlaşma tercihlerinin siyasi, ekonomik ve savunma boyutlarını anlamak için süreç izleme yöntemi kullanılacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Körfez Arap Ülkeleri İşbirliği Konseyi
• Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
• Çin
• Siste-mik Faktörler
• Yerel Faktörler

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