A disputa saudi-iraniana pela hegemonia no Oriente Médio a partir do estudo do conflito iemenita

Abstract

The objective of this monographic work is to carry out an analysis of a possible dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran for the establishment of a hegemony in the Middle East region, for this will be used as a case study the Yemeni civil war of (2014 - current) and respectively the proxy war present within the Yemeni conflict. The research uses as theoretical framework the realist theory of international relations and in particular the offensive realism proposed by John Mearsheimer (2001) in addition, the qualitative method is used with a literature review to conduct the case study of the Yemeni conflict. The Yemen region is disputed by the two countries through a proxy war, however, through the literature review it is possible to understand that the Saudi Arabia and Iran were not always rivals, even being cooperative with each other at specific times, especially during the reign of Reza Pahlavi in Iran. The breaking point comes after the Islamic revolution of 1979, which establishes a republican government in Iran. The Iranian government begins to seek the export of its revolutionary and Shiite model, which is antagonistic to the Sunni monarchical model adopted by the Saudis, before which a relationship of rivalry between Saudis and Iranians begins. Both states use proxy warfare to pursue their interests within Yemen. War by proxy is defined as an intra-state conflict that suffers from the interference of third states with belligerent groups (state or non-state). In the context of the Yemeni case study, Iran uses the non-state paramilitary group known as the Houthis to establish its presence in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia militarily supports the internationally recognized government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi. In this way, the question arises of how the proxy war within the Yemeni conflict contributes to the search for hegemony and the Saudi-Iranian rivalry? It starts from the hypothesis that the country that conquers a political position within Yemen will obtain an advantage over the other in the search for the establishment of a hegemony in the region. The results obtained bring the idea that in fact there is a hegemonic dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran and that the States use the proxy war in Yemen as an instrument to be able to seek this hegemony in order to guarantee the survival of their respective regimes. from the perspective of offensive realism.