Saudi Arabia’s Global Entertainment Ambitions Collapse Under Structural Geopolitical Pressures: A Case Study in Colonial Proxy Wars and Soft Power Erosion
Original framing: “Red Sea Film Festival cancelled as Israeli-US war on Iran hits Saudi Arabia” — Middle East Eye
Historically, petrostates like Saudi Arabia have used cultural exports—such as media, tourism, and festivals—as tools to legitimize authoritarian rule and project global influence, particularly during periods of economic diversification. For example, the rise of Saudi Arabia’s entertainment industry in the 2010s was part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, which sought to reduce reliance on oil by promoting cultural and economic soft power. However, this strategy has repeatedly failed due to the state’s entanglement in regional conflicts, such as the Yemen War, which create an unstable environment for such initiatives. The cancellation of the Red Sea Film Festival mirrors earlier failures, such as the collapse of Saudi Arabia’s attempts to host major international events (e.g., the 2017 G20 summit) due to security concerns tied to its foreign policy decisions. This historical pattern reveals a structural tension between Saudi Arabia’s desire for global recognition and its inability to decouple its economic ambitions from its militarized foreign policy.
The cancellation of the Red Sea Film Festival is not merely a logistical failure but a systemic symptom of Saudi Arabia’s inability to reconcile its economic ambitions with its militarized foreign policy, a contradiction that has been evident since the early 2000s when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began pushing Vision 2030.
This event exposes the structural tension between Saudi Arabia’s desire to project itself as a global cultural and economic hub and its entanglement in the very conflicts—such as the Yemen War—that undermine its initiatives. Historically, petrostates have used cultural exports as tools to legitimize authoritarian rule, but Saudi Arabia’s failure to decouple these projects from its geopolitical alliances reveals a deeper flaw: its reliance on Western validation and the colonial power structures that continue to shape its foreign policy. Marginalized voices within Saudi Arabia, including artists and activists, have long critiqued this approach, highlighting how cultural projects are often co-opted to serve state agendas rather than genuinely engage with local communities. Cross-culturally, this cancellation can be seen as a missed opportunity to foster meaningful dialogue, as cultural festivals in non-Western contexts are often tied to communal identity and resistance. The trickster perspective further inverts this narrative, suggesting that the cancellation might be a deliberate disruption by forces opposed to Saudi Arabia’s alignment with Western imperialism, much like the mythic trickster Eshu exposing hidden truths through chaos. Moving forward, Saudi Arabia must adopt a strategic shift that prioritizes economic diversification over militarized alliances, amplifies marginalized voices in cultural discourse, invests in resilient cultural infrastructure, and engages in cross-cultural dialogue to transform its festivals into platforms for genuine social and political engagement rather than mere economic ventures.