Regional Defense Cooperation and Collective Security: The Case of the Saudi–Turkish–Pakistani Alliance in the Middle East

Abstract

This article examines the Saudi–Turkish–Pakistani Alliance defense coalition as a test case for whether trilateral security cooperation can advance collective security in the Middle East. Applying Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) to a case that deliberately spans the Middle Eastern and South Asian security complexes. The study develops a five-part conceptual typology “strategic alignment, security cooperation, defense alliance, collective defense, and collective security”, and applies it through qualitative document analysis and structured cross-national comparison across six dimensions: strategic drivers, capability complementarity, institutional characteristics, convergence and divergence of national interests, constraints on institutionalization, and implications for regional deterrence. The analysis finds that the coalition codifies a binding mutual-defense clause that exceeds informal strategic alignment but has not achieved the institutionalization “a joint command, standing forces, a published treaty text, or a demonstrated response to an actual attack” that would place it within collective security in the stricter, universalist sense; it is best classified as a nascent collective-defense alliance. The study concludes that the coalition marks a genuine departure from the region's reliance on external security guarantees and bilateral arrangements, but that its evolution into a durable collective-defense or collective-security framework remains, on present evidence, an open empirical question.