Old Foes To Bitter Allies
In the past couple of months we have seen the rise of a cancerous group known as ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). It is not clear where they originated from, nor how they stealthily spread so fast right under the nose of all global watchers in such a connected world that we live in now.
Before ISIS became a threat it was clear and known around the world which countries could be categorized as allies and which as enemies. However in the past couple of months, as ISIS became a threat to the international community with no allies but itself, the dynamics of the whole situation started shifting around. Countries which had problems with each other found that there was a bigger threat approaching and their security and stability was now threatened, thus having to re-evaluate who their enemies are and who their allies are (or rather should be) at this point. This meant the possibility of forging new temporary truces and alliances.
In the Middle East one of the biggest conflicting countries were Iran and Saudi Arabia, as Saudi Arabia is governed by a very radical Islamic Sunni monarchy, whilst an Islamic Shiite Government governs Iran (the two denominations from Islam have historically been reasons for conflict). Internationally the United States have been strong allies with Saudi Arabia and enemies with Iran. This relationship between the countries was structurally balanced, as there were two negative relationships (USA-Iran & Saudi Arabia-Iran) and only one positive relationship (USA-Saudi Arabia). Now that ISIS has been introduced as an enemy for all of them, the dynamic of this system mush change to become structurally balanced, because we cannot have five negative relationships and one positive relationship. To be able to defeat that common threat they needed to become structurally balanced so now we can see that Iran, the US and Saudi Arabia have all become Allies with one mutual enemy, which is ISIS.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/isis-turning-enemies-awkward-allies/story?id=25205363
