Essay term paper on Report on Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and Libya

The events connected with the struggle against international terrorism had a significant impact on changes of traditionally established international relations. First of all, it is all about the transformations in the role of the oil factor, previously cementing the relations of Saudi Arabia and the United States. Saudi oil makes 20% of U.S. imports of this fuel, which means a substantial dependence on the U.S. on supplies from Saudi Arabia. The U.S. is taking steps to reduce this dependence: first, after the war in Iraq, the Iraqi oil export has greatly increased; second, the U.S. plans to increase purchases in Russia. All this makes Saudi Arabia once again listen more attentively to the policy of the United States (Aarts and Nonneman 399-402). Still, Saudi Arabia is a key member in such organizations as the League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In December 2005, Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization.

Similar policy based on the idea of pan-Arabism, together with the subordinate to it fierce anti-imperialism, was pursued by Libya. Thus, in the 1980’s, under the leadership of the head of the Libyan Revolution Muammar al-Gaddafi and taking advantage of high oil prices, Libya took the responsibility of funding the armed struggle against Western imperialism around the world, and already in April 1992, at the request of the United States and Great Britain, the UN Security Council introduced the international sanctions against Libya, the state fully liberated from only in 2004 (St.John 78-80). It was in 2004 that Gaddafi announced the refusal from weapon of mass destruction, and programs on its creation, as well as agreed to let international inspectors enter the country. Libya was also struggling for exclusion from the U.S. list of states supporting terrorism, as previously, it had already achieved the abolition of the international embargo by acknowledging responsibility for certain acts of terrorism, and was further doing everything possible to earn the trust of the international community. Meanwhile, the weakening of international sanctions allowed Libya to breathe more freely, and it used this situation for entering the diplomatic offensive. As a result, in 2009, diplomatic relations with Britain were broken, and the same year, the Libyan authorities stopped issuing visas to the citizens of the Schengen zone, which was caused by the long-lasting diplomatic conflict with Switzerland (Otman and Karlberg 302-4).

On a whole, according to the interactive rating by the Newsweek magazine (2010) (“Interactive Infographic of the World’s Best Countries”), Kazakhstan is ranked 61^st in the list The world’s best countries, followed by Saudi Arabia (64^th position), while Libya is not included into the rating at all. The research is based on a composite index comprised out of the following parameters: education (Kazakhstan is ranked 14^th, Saudi Arabia – 65^th); health (Kazakhstan is ranked 82^nd, Saudi Arabia – 66^th); quality of life (Kazakhstan is ranked 45^th, Saudi Arabia – 51^st); economic dynamism (Kazakhstan is ranked 43^rd, Saudi Arabia – 23^rd); political environment (Kazakhstan is ranked 81^st, Saudi Arabia – 98^th).