Tampa Prep 2009-2010 Impact Defense File



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AT: U.S. Saudi Relations



1. US-Saudi relations are falling due to chinese pressure for oil

Energy Publisher June 19, 2008 http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=15526

To fuel its growing economy, China is following America’s footsteps, subjugating its foreign policy to its energy needs. It is attempting to gain a foothold in the Middle East and build up long-term strategic links with the region’s producers. Though some optimists think that China’s pursuit of energy could present an opportunity to enhance cooperation, integration, and interdependence with the U.S., there are ample signs that China and the U.S. could already be on a collision course over oil. For China, the biggest prize in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, home of a quarter of the world’s reserves. Since September 11, tension in U.S.-Saudi relations has provided the Chinese with an opportunity to win the heart of the House of Saud. To Washington’s dismay China has also set its sights on Iran, announcing that it will not support sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council. No doubt that as China’s oil demand grows, so will its involvement in Middle East politics. China is likely to provide the region’s energy exporters not only with diplomatic support but also with weapons, including assistance in the development of WMD.


2. Despite US-Saudi relations problems, the US must continue to support Saudi Arabia

Barker 01 (James Barker was Secretary of State for George H W Bush)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/interviews/baker.html



Our relationship with Saudi Arabia, with all of its faults that you've pointed out, is really a relationship we can't disentangle ourselves from. In my view, if you accept as a premise that we must have access, easy access, to the energy reserves of the Persian Gulf, I don't see how it makes sense for the United States to say we're no longer going to support the government of Saudi Arabia, which enables us to do that.
3. US Saudi relations have always been rocky, but practical factors keep the countries together

Washington Post 06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901758.html

The 9/11 hijackers undermined otherwise strong U.S.- Saudi ties. Actually, things were never that smooth. Historians refer to the "special relationship" established when Saudi Arabia's King Abdel Aziz and President Franklin D. Roosevelt met in 1945. But since then the relationship has endured oil embargoes, U.S. restrictions on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and tensions around Israel and Palestine. Dissension permeates the entire history of U.S.-Saudi relations. Since the end of the Cold War, relations have become particularly fraught, with the 9/11 attacks being the most recent issue. Oil, defense and some regional interests keep the countries together, but both sides have made clear that the relationship is less special today. In 2005, Rice stated that "for 60 years . . . the United States pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East -- and we achieved neither."

AT: U.S. South Korean Relations



U.S. South Korean relations will remain strong – Lee ensures

Zissis and Lee 2008 Zissis is a journalist with a masters in Latin American studies and international affairs. Lee is a journalist and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. (Carin Zissis and Youkyung Lee, “The US and South Korea Relations”, Council on Foreign Relations, April 14, 2008,

http://www.cfr.org/publication/11459/ussouth_korea_alliance.html)

Introduction

The longstanding U.S.-South Korea alliance, originally established during the early years of the Cold War as a bulwark against communist expansion in Asia, has undergone a series of transformations in recent years. Since 1998, when political power passed for the first time from the dictatorial ruling party to the political opposition, the United Democratic Party, successive UDP governments have steered a more independent course from Washington, sometimes leading to friction. During the tenure of President George W. Bush, the once solid alliance went through a difficult period. Among the many issues that bedeviled ties was disagreement over how to handle Pyongyang’s erratic behavior, a generational divide in South Korea on the alliance and the U.S. military presence that underpins it, an ascendant China, and disagreements during bilateral trade negotiations. In 2007, the countries signed a bilateral free trade accord and agreed to a rearrangement of the military command structure that gives Seoul a greater say in its own defense. They also narrowed their differences on North Korea policy. In 2007, a conservative, Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, won South Korea’s presidency, and his party followed up with victories in 2008 parliamentary elections, ending two decades of UDP dominance. Lee strongly supports the U.S. free trade agreement and takes a harder line on North Korea unlike his two predecessors.

What is the history of U.S.-South Korea relations?

When Japan lost control of Korea at the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union split the peninsula into two territories pending promised national elections, which never took place. Instead, after Moscow and Washington failed to agree on a way forward, the United Nations in 1948 declared the Republic of Korea (ROK), with its capital in Seoul, as the only legitimate government on the peninsula. The Soviets rejected that assertion, and in 1950, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) invaded. The United States, heading up UN forces, came to the aid of South Korea. War ensued until 1953, when a cease-fire froze the front line at roughly the thirty-eighth parallel.



In 1954, the United States and South Korea signed the ROK/U.S. Mutual Security Agreement, in which they agreed to defend each other in the event of outside aggression. In 1978, the two countries formed the Combined Forces Command (CFC), based in Seoul and with a U.S. general at the helm, to defend South Korea. “For decades it was the threat from North Korea that was the glue that held the alliance together,” says Donald P. Gregg, chairman of the Korea Society and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. But the South, ruled largely by U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes until the 1990s, underwent a shift in attitude toward North Korea under liberal administrations from 1998 to 2007. President Lee has promised better ties with the United States.


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