Quarterly Journal of West Asia Political Research

Abstract This study aims to identify and explain the challenges facing civil society activism in Saudi Arabia based on Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory. The central research question concerns how the country’s political, legal, administrative, and cultural structures shape the scope of action available to civil society organizations and actors, and what capacities and strategies these actors employ in response to such constraints. In terms of its purpose, the study is explanatory-analytical, while methodologically it adopts a qualitative approach. Data were collected through documentary analysis and a review of scholarly articles, books, official documents, and relevant reports on civil society in Saudi Arabia. The data were analyzed using theory-driven thematic analysis. The findings indicate that licensing requirements, administrative oversight, the financial and organizational dependence of civil society organizations, restrictions on independent activities, control over public and digital spaces, and sensitivity toward political advocacy constitute the major barriers to civil society activism in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, a significant proportion of civil society activities has been confined to charitable, educational, cultural, and social service domains. Nevertheless, civil society actors have created opportunities for sustaining their activities and achieving gradual influence through informal networks, trust-based relationships, voluntary initiatives, digital media, and the opportunities emerging from ongoing social reforms. From a Giddensian perspective, structures are not merely constraining forces; they also provide actors with rules and resources that enable action. Accordingly, civil society activism in Saudi Arabia is neither entirely autonomous nor completely passive; rather, it is shaped through an ongoing process of adaptation, negotiation, and reinterpretation of structural constraints.

Abstract The 1921 Cairo Conference represented a major turning point in the reconfiguration of British regional policy in West Asia following the First World War. The emergence of a new regional order in West Asia after the war marked the beginning of a series of transformations that also affected Iran’s geopolitical position within its surrounding environment. Britain’s decisions, aimed at reformulating its regional policy and aligning it with a broader strategy for managing the emerging regional order at lower imperial costs, played a significant role in reshaping the political and security structures of West Asia. This article analyzes the process of power engineering undertaken by Britain within Iran’s geopolitical environment and seeks to explain the logic of indirect rule that has shaped the region over the past century. The primary objective of this study is to examine how the decisions and policy orientations consolidated during this period, within the framework of Britain’s broader strategy in West Asia, contributed to redefining Iran’s geopolitical position. The study employs an analytical approach based on archival sources. The findings indicate that, during this period, Britain, seeking to reduce the costs of imperial governance while consolidating its influence, pursued a transition from direct to indirect rule, the establishment of politically aligned entities, and reliance on air power as an instrument of control and power projection. These developments not only contributed to the creation of new political structures in the region but also transformed the security balances surrounding Iran and reconfigured Iran’s geopolitical position within Britain’s regional strategy.