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This study delves into the buoyant relations between a rising great power (People’s Republic of China) and a prominent regional state (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). From a classical realist perspective, the thesis first explores the drivers and triggers behind these evolving ties throughout the last decade. Secondly, it investigates the possibility of China’s inclusion within the "oil for security" bargaining paradigm in the Gulf. The thesis argues that the Sino-Saudi ideological rupture at the peak of the Cold War has been transformed into a realist interests-based partnership. This partnership was initially built on the energy pillar. It then evolved to encompass broader economic relations, in tandem with the rising synergies between China’s Belt and Road initiative and the "Saudi Vision 2030". The thesis further argues that Beijing can jostle Washington regarding the practice of diplomatic and security roles in some of the regional hot spots, but without necessarily aiming – at least in the short term – to replace the U.S key role within the Gulf’s security architecture. More broadly, the thesis lends credence to the nascent argument that the global balance of power, will eventually become a struggle between two or three superpowers; namely the U.S, China and possibly India afterwards. While neither power has absolute dominance, the three giants are acquiring considerable resources for the upcoming quarrels. It is within this context that the Gulf region, with Saudi Arabia at its core, becomes a crucial politico-economic theatre in this seemingly long transition process.

The debate about grand strategy in the Second World War has scarcely ended even in the 21st Century. The present study examines the classical issue of the grand strategy in Europe and the anti-Hitler coalition as concerns the US-UK-Soviet exchange about the Second Front. The great phenomenon of the Second World War was the creation of an unprecedented military alliance between the western powers and the Soviet Union. Due to mutual antagonism the inter-Allied cooperation during the Second World War was very complicated and at times extremely tense. Perhaps the most acute disagreement in the relationship between the Allies was the "Second Front" controversy. Despite desperate Soviet demands to open the Second Front as soon as possible, the Western Allies launched a massive cross-channel operation in the northwestern Europe only in June 1944. This thesis analyses the reasons of why it took the western powers so long to organize and execute such an operation and its implications for the post-war order. The detailed analysis of the grand strategy during the Second World War is one of the ways to comprehend the violent 20th Century amid the carnage of the 21st Century and its own problems of grand strategy., http://archive.org/details/thesecondfrontgr109452253, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.