The myth of the reforming monarch: Orientalism, racial capitalism, and UK support for the Arab Gulf monarchies
| Published date | 01 August 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211041547 |
| Author | David Wearing |
| Date | 01 August 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211041547
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(3) 370 –385
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02633957211041547
journals.sagepub.com/home/pol
The myth of the reforming
monarch: Orientalism, racial
capitalism, and UK support for
the Arab Gulf monarchies
David Wearing
SOAS University of London, UK
Abstract
The narrative of ‘reform’ in Saudi Arabia, recently recurring in British political discourse around
the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is situated within wider Orientalist themes,
wherein a progressive and modern West is juxtaposed with an Arabian peninsula mired in
backwardness. In this context, the purported Arab ‘reformer’ is presented as the ideal ally of
the West, attempting to haul his society up to the West’s supposed standards, for example on
women’s rights. This racialising narrative serves to legitimise British support for authoritarian Gulf
regimes, thus helping to sustain the political economy of this set of international relations at the
political level. It does this by obscuring the important role the United Kingdom plays in sustaining
authoritarianism in the Arabian peninsula by externalising the explanatory focus onto the terrain
of cultural difference. This article contributes to the literature on UK relations with the Arab Gulf
monarchies by critically analysing the ways in which racialising discourses dovetail with material
interests to reinforce and sustain these ties. In doing so, it also contributes to the emerging
literatures on ‘racial capitalism’ and ‘race’ in international relations, through its exploration of the
role of Orientalist discourse in this significant empirical case study.
Keywords
British foreign relations, orientalism, political economy of the Middle East, race in international
relations, racial capitalism
Received: 21st July 2020; Revised version received: 4th June 2021; Accepted: 25th June 2021
Introduction
The narrative of ‘reform’ in Saudi Arabia, promoted by the kingdom’s Crown Prince
Mohammed Bin Salman, and taken up by governments and media commentators in the
United States and the United Kingdom, was undermined by the October 2018 killing of
Jamal Khashoggi, an exiled Saudi journalist critical of the Crown Prince’s rule. The
Crown Prince himself likely ordered the assassination (Barnes and Sanger, 2021). The
dissonance between the projected image of benign liberalisation and the silencing of
Corresponding author:
David Wearing, SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG, UK.
Email: dw19@soas.ac.uk
1041547POL0010.1177/02633957211041547PoliticsWearing
research-article2021
Article
Wearing 371
Khashoggi poses questions about the nature and role of the narrative of Saudi ‘reform’
within Western public discourse, which this article will attempt to shed light on.
The narrative of the ‘reforming’ monarch is not new, and is consistent with the juxta-
posed, binary caricatures of Orientalist discourse, wherein the West is cast as axiomati-
cally progressive and modern, in contradistinction with an East mired in a backwardness
determined by its culture and traditions. In this context, the purported Arab ‘reformer’ is
presented as the ideal ally of the progressive West, attempting to drag his society up
towards what are taken to be our own higher standards.
As such, the ‘reform’ narrative serves two important discursive functions. First, it
legitimises Western support for authoritarian rule with the implied but false promise that
the regime in question is working to achieve some form of meaningful and transformative
change. Second, by moving the explanatory focus for the persistence of authoritarianism
away from the historic collusion of governing elites in both the East and West, and firmly
onto the terrain of cultural difference, it serves to reinforce the West’s self-image as lib-
eral and democratic, despite its sustained support for authoritarian rule. In fact, Western
support for Gulf monarchs, once the latter are cast as ‘reforming’, becomes proof, rather
than disproof, of the liberal nature of Western power. Authoritarianism is thus external-
ised as an Arab trait, or problem, and a sense of Western innocence is preserved.
Crucially, by legitimating Western support for these monarchies, this racialising dis-
course serves to facilitate the ongoing incorporation of the Gulf region into global capital-
ism on terms favourable to the interests of the Atlantic powers. That is to say, the process
of racialising the Gulf is a constitutive element of the capitalist relations between the
region and the West. To this extent, we are dealing here with an instance of ‘racial
capitalism’.
This article will critically analyse the ‘reform’ narrative in the case of UK relations
with Saudi Arabia primarily, but also with reference to Bahrain. These illustrative cases
will be set within the structural context of UK relations with the states of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (‘GCC’, comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates and Oman). Notwithstanding the heterogeneity across these six
states, they constitute a coherent geopolitical bloc from the point of view of UK foreign
relations. Maintaining support for monarchical rule in the GCC has long been a policy of
high strategic value to the British state and British capitalism.
The article begins by outlining the role that Britain has played in sustaining authoritar-
ian rule in the region. Noting the contradiction between these practices and the political
philosophy of democratic liberalism in which the British political class is steeped, it con-
tends that, beyond the material self-interest of the British state and British capitalism, we
must look to the role of ideology and discourse to gain a more complete understanding of
how these relationships are justified and thus rendered sustainable politically.
The article then draws on the concept of ‘racial capitalism’, noting how certain peoples
have been racialised within western discourse so as to justify integrating them into the
global capitalist system in a subordinate position. It utilises the concept of ‘Orientalism’,
to examine the specific processes of racialisation to which this article pertains. The narra-
tive of the ‘reforming monarch’ emerges from Orientalist discourse, and the article dis-
cusses the nature and lineage of that narrative, and the ways it has been employed in the
UK-Gulf context. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of Crown Prince
Mohammed Bin Salman, and the utility of the ‘reform’ narrative as a defence of contin-
ued British support for the Saudi kingdom. Here, the treatment of women’s rights within
the discourse provides an especially telling illustration of the dynamics in play.
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
