© The Author(s) 2019 129
P. R. Kumaraswamy, Md. M. Quamar, India’s Saudi Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_7
CHAPTER 7The Shift
Both India and Saudi Arabia were immensely affected by the sudden
collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the consequent end of
the Cold War. Like much of the international community, Indian leaders
and policy analysts were unable to foresee the unravelling events in Eastern
Europe since the late 1980s. The Soviet Union which challenged the West
both militarily and ideologically crumbled suddenly and by the end of
1991 disintegrated into 15 independent states, with weakened Russia
emerging as its successor state. The end of the bipolar order that domi-
nated world politics since the end of the Second World War was hailed as
a defining moment in history and was viewed as the heralding of the
American century (Evans et al. 1998 ; Harvey 2003 ), unipolar world
(Waltz 1993 ) and even the end of history (Fukuyama 1989 ). As later
events proved, such arguments were premature, but the disintegration of
the USSR marked the end of the Cold War. In the Middle East, this coin-
cided with the Kuwait crisis and the weakened USSR joined hands with
President George H. W. Bush to repulse the Iraqi aggression through the
UN-backed Operation Desert Storm (Evans 1992 ; Lambeth 1992 ;
Spielman 1990 ).
The period between 1989 and 1991 was also politically tumultuous
in India’s history and witnessed severe social upheavals, tensions and
violence. The Congress Party, which dominated the post-independent
landscape, lost the 1989 Lok Sabha elections and paved the way for unsta-
ble coalition governments in Delhi. The two union governments headed