The Metamorphosis : The Muslim Brotherhood From Political Asset to A Security Threat

Författare

Alexander Källman

Summary, in English

This dissertation aims to analyse how in Saudi Arabia’s perception the Muslim Brotherhood went from being a political asset to a security threat for the Kingdom. It does so by examining the reoccurring historical (in)security elements of the regime in order to understand why they are perceived as a threat. By examining the origin and ideology of the Brotherhood we gain an understanding on how the organization can pose a threat.
The time period examined in this work includes the modern history of Saudi Arabia, leading up to March 2014 when Saudi Arabia officially classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The work has been conducted through a qualitative analysis of the empirics on which the theory of Securitization has been applied. The empirics have been gathered from academic literature, newspapers and articles.
What has been shown is that that the Kingdom does not solely perceive its regime survival from a materialistic balance of power perspective, but rather from a broader and more inclusive. The security of Saudi Arabia has been not to balance neighboring interests, but rather to walk a line of managing internal and international interests in order to maintain the primacy of the monarchical family and its interests. By applying the theory of Securitization, this dissertation analyses how the mutual accommodation between Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood altered under politicized and later securitized religion.

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