Download or read book Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East written by F Gregory Gause, III and published by Council on Foreign Relations. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States'' relationship with Saudi Arabia has been one of the cornerstones of U.S. policy in the Middle East for decades. Despite their substantial differences in history, culture, and governance, the two countries have generally agreed on important political and economic issues and have often relied on each other to secure mutual aims. The 1990-91 Gulf War is perhaps the most obvious example, but their ongoing cooperation on maintaining regional stability, moderating the global oil market, and pursuing terrorists should not be downplayed. Yet for all the relationship''s importance, it is increasingly imperiled by mistrust and misunderstanding. One major question is Saudi Arabia''s stability. In this Council Special Report, sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, F. Gregory Gause III first explores the foundations of Riyadh''s present stability and potential sources of future unrest. It is difficult not to notice that Saudi Arabia avoided significant upheaval during the political uprisings that swept the Middle East in 2011, despite sharing many of the social and economic problems of Egypt, Yemen, and Libya. But unlike their counterparts in Cairo, Sanaa, and Tripoli, Riyadh''s leadership was able to maintain order in large part by increasing public spending on housing and salaries, relying on loyal and well-equipped security forces, and utilizing its extensive patronage networks. The divisions within the political opposition also helped the government''s cause. This is not to say that Gause believes that the stability of the House of Saud is assured. He points out that the top heirs to the throne are elderly and the potential for disorderly squabbling may increase as a new generation enters the line of succession. Moreover, the population is growing quickly, and there is little reason to believe that oil will forever be able to buy social tranquility. Perhaps most important, Gause argues, the leadership''s response to the 2011 uprisings did little to forestall future crises; an opportunity for manageable political reform was mostly lost. Turning to the regional situation, Gause finds it no less complex. Saudi Arabia has wielded considerable influence with its neighbors through its vast oil reserves, its quiet financial and political support for allies, and the ideological influence of salafism, the austere interpretation of Islam that is perhaps Riyadh''s most controversial export. For all its wealth and religious influence, however, Saudi Arabia''s recent record has been less than successful. It was unable to counter Iranian influence in post-Saddam Iraq, it could not prevent Hezbollah taking power in Lebanon, and its ongoing efforts to reconcile Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have come to naught. The U.S.-Saudi relationship has, unsurprisingly, been affected by these and other challenges, including Saudi unhappiness with Washington''s decision to distance itself from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Iran. For its part, the United States is unhappy with the Saudi intervention in Bahrain and Saudi support for radical Islamists around the region and the world. The two traditional anchors of the U.S.-Saudi relationship-the Cold War and U.S. operation of Riyadh''s oil fields-are, Gause notes, no longer factors. It is no wonder, he contends, that the relationship is strained when problems are myriad and the old foundations of the informal alliance are gone. It would be far better, Gause argues, to acknowledge that the two countries can no longer expect to act in close concert under such conditions. He recommends that the United States reimagine the relationship as simply transactional, based on cooperation when interests-rather than habit-dictate. Prioritizing those interests will therefore be critical. Rather than pressuring Riyadh for domestic political reform, or asking it to reduce global oil prices, Gause recommends that the United States spend its political capital where it really matters: on maintaining regional security, dismantling terrorist networks, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. There have been few relationships more important to the United States than that with Saudi Arabia, and it is vital that, as it enters a new phase, the expectations and priorities of both countries are clear. In Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East, Gause effectively assesses the challenges and opportunities facing Saudi Arabia and makes a compelling argument for a more modest, businesslike relationship between Washington and Riyadh that better reflects modern realities. As the United States begins reassessing its commitments in the Greater Middle East, this report offers a clear vision for a more limited-but perhaps more appropriate and sustainable-future partnership.
Download or read book Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East written by F. Gregory Gause III and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Saudi Arabia in Transition written by Bernard Haykel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-19 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making sense of Saudi Arabia is crucially important today. The kingdom's western province contains the heart of Islam, and it is the United States' closest Arab ally and the largest producer of oil in the world. However, the country is undergoing rapid change: its aged leadership is ceding power to a new generation, and its society, dominated by young people, is restive. Saudi Arabia has long remained closed to foreign scholars, with a select few academics allowed into the kingdom over the past decade. This book presents the fruits of their research as well as those of the most prominent Saudi academics in the field. This volume focuses on different sectors of Saudi society and examines how the changes of the past few decades have affected each. It reflects new insights and provides the most up-to-date research on the country's social, cultural, economic and political dynamics.
Download or read book Saudi Arabia written by Sherifa Zuhur and published by Strategic Studies Institute. This book was released on 2005 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph examines the emergence and progress of an Islamist threat in Saudi Arabia and the simultaneous development of other forces for political change, and assesses the strategic situation in the Kingdom in light of the regional war on terrorism.
Download or read book Dispatches from the Arab Spring written by Paul Amar and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arab Spring unleashed forces of liberation and social justice that swept across North Africa and the Middle East with unprecedented speed, ferocity, and excitement. Although the future of the democratic uprisings against oppressive authoritarian regimes remains uncertain in many places, the revolutionary wave that started in Tunisia in December 2010 has transformed how the world sees Arab peoples and politics. Bringing together the knowledge of activists, scholars, journalists, and policy experts uniquely attuned to the pulse of the region, Dispatches from the Arab Spring offers an urgent and engaged analysis of a remarkable ongoing world-historical event that is widely misinterpreted in the West. Tracing the flows of protest, resistance, and counterrevolution in every one of the countries affected by this epochal change—from Morocco to Iraq and Syria to Sudan—the contributors provide ground-level reports and new ways of teaching about and understanding the Middle East in general, and contextualizing the social upheavals and political transitions that defined the Arab Spring in particular. Rejecting outdated and invalid (yet highly influential) paradigms to analyze the region—from depictions of the “Arab street” as a mindless, reactive mob to the belief that Arab culture was “unfit” for democratic politics—this book offers fresh insights into the region’s dynamics, drawing from social history, political geography, cultural creativity, and global power politics. Dispatches from the Arab Spring is an unparalleled introduction to the changing Middle East and offers the most comprehensive and accurate account to date of the uprisings that profoundly reshaped North Africa and the Middle East. Contributors: Sheila Carapico, U of Richmond; Nouri Gana, UCLA; Toufic Haddad; Adam Hanieh, SOAS/U of London; Toby C. Jones, Rutgers U; Anjali Kamat; Khalid Medani, McGill U; Merouan Mekouar; Maya Mikdashi, NYU; Paulo Gabriel Hilu Pinto, U Federal Fluminense, Brazil; Jillian Schwedler, Hunter College, CUNY; Ahmad Shokr; Susan Slyomovics, UCLA; Haifa Zangana.
Download or read book The New Middle East written by James L. Gelvin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[In this book, the author outlines] the social, political, and economic contours of the New Middle East, illuminates the current crisis in the region, and explores how the region will continue to change in the decades to come"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Saudi Arabia on the Edge written by Thomas W. Lippman and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the countries in the world that are vital to the strategic and economic interests of the United States, Saudi Arabia is the least understood by the American people. Saudi Arabia's unique place in Islam makes it indispensable to a constructive relationship between the non-Muslim West and the Muslim world. For all its wealth, the country faces daunting challenges that it lacks the tools to meet: a restless and young population, a new generation of educated women demanding opportunities in a closed society, political stagnation under an octogenarian leadership, religious extremism and intellectual backwardness, social division, chronic unemployment, shortages of food and water, and troublesome neighbors. Today's Saudi people, far better informed than all previous generations, are looking for new political institutions that will enable them to be heard, but these aspirations conflict with the kingdom's strict traditions and with the House of Saud's determination to retain all true power. Meanwhile, the country wishes to remain under the protection of American security but still clings to a system that is antithetical to American values. Basing his work on extensive interviews and field research conducted in the kingdom from 2008 through 2011 under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas W. Lippman dissects this central Saudi paradox for American readers, including diplomats, policymakers, scholars, and students of foreign policy.
Download or read book The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia written by David E. Long and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the outstanding book on Saudi Arabia for readers desiring a comprehensive view of the subject embracing both background and contemporary foreign policy issues."--David L. Mack, chairman, Department of National Security Policy, National War College "The first general survey of Saudi Arabia, to my knowledge, that combines scholarly analysis with breadth of scope, as well as a detailed and nuanced understanding of the country."--Bernard Reich, George Washington University David Long's portrait of Saudi Arabia depicts the kingdom as one of the least understood countries in the world. Encompassing all facets of Saudi life--the land and people, their religion and culture, the country's history, politics, economics, and foreign policy--the book presents scholarship in a highly readable narrative. Drawing upon extensive firsthand experience, Long depicts the often contradictory impulses of a country committed both to modernization and to the values of a traditional society. Alongside his discussion of oil and the Saudi economy, for example, is a chapter on the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Makkah, a subject about which little has been written in English but one that is far more important to the millions of Muslims worldwide than the kingdom's oil wealth. At every turn Long looks at issues from a Saudi point of view as he explores the kingdom's successes, failures, and, most of all, its remarkable resiliency in response to the pressures of social change. David E. Long, a retired Foreign Service officer, has been a visiting professor at several American universities and is currently an international consultant on the Middle East and international terrorism. His publications include The Anatomy of Terrorism (1990) and The United States and Saudi Arabia (1985).
Download or read book The New Middle East written by Fawaz A. Gerges and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Middle East critically examines the Arab popular uprisings of 2011-12.
Download or read book Saudi Arabia and Iran written by Simon Mabon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, relations between states in the Middle East were reconfigured and reassessed overnight. Amongst the most-affected was the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The existence of a new regime in Tehran led to increasingly vitriolic confrontations between these two states, often manifesting themselves in the conflicts across the region, such as those in Lebanon and Iraq, and more recently in Bahrain and Syria. In order to shed light upon this rivalry, Simon Mabon examines the different identity groups within Saudi Arabia and Iran (made up of various religions, ethnicities and tribal groupings), proposing that internal insecurity has an enormous impact on the wider ideological and geopolitical competition between the two. With analysis of this heated and often uneasy relationship and its impact on the wider Middle East, this book is vital for those researching international relations and diplomacy in the region.
Download or read book The New Middle East written by Shimon Peres and published by HarperElement. This book was released on 1993 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs offers a vision of the future for the Middle East. He sees a reconstructed region free of past conflicts, set to take its place in a new era - one that will not tolerate backwardness or ignorance - and a social and economic revival fuelled by the billions of dollars wasted for decades on defence. He also offers an analysis of how peace can be achieved, seeking nothing short of an historic new chapter between two peoples: an end to 100 years of hostility and a beginning of 100 years of peace and understanding.
Download or read book The Making of Saudi Arabia 1916 1936 written by Joseph Kostiner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-12-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of Saudi Arabia focuses on the transformation of the Saudi state from a loose tribal confederation into a more organized, monarchical state, a process which evolved mainly between 1916 and 1936. The study analyzes the formation and evolution of Saudi Arabia's main state attributes: its territorial hub and borders, central government, and basic social and regional cohesion. Relying on a careful analysis of vast archival and other sources, Joseph Kostiner explains the historical dynamics of the myriad of relations among tribal groups, rulers, and British authorities in the Arabian Peninsula, and the changing nature of local political and social institutions. Contributing both to historical knowledge of the Middle East and to comparative analysis on tribes and states, this book offers new information and understanding of Saudi Arabia, one of the most important states in the Middle East. The strategies and dynamics of Saudi territorial expansion; the subsequent attempts to integrate new regions into a united kingdom; the institutionalization of Islamic and lay ruling bodies; the coexistence among nomadic and town-based populations, and the development of the Saudi "elite" are analyzed.
Download or read book The New Middle East written by James L. Gelvin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second edition of The New Middle East: What Everyone Needs to Know, renowned Middle East scholar James L. Gelvin explains how in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR, the American invasion of Iraq, and the Arab uprisings of 2010-11, a new Middle East has emerged. Syria, Libya, and Yemen have become "crisis states," where warlords vie against governments and each other. The economies of Iran, Turkey, and Lebanon, weakened by corruption, sanctions, and neoliberal economic policies, have imploded. Some states have doubled-down on repression, while others intervene in the internal affairs of their neighbors with impunity. The revised and expanded edition explores these hallmarks of the New Middle East, along with the end of American hegemony in the region, the expansion of "conflict zones," the continued centrality of the Saudi-Iranian competition, and the ramifications of the breakdown of the Israel-Palestine peace process. It also highlights the crisis of human security brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, bad governance, stagnant economies, poor healthcare and educational delivery systems, climate change, food and water insecurity, population growth and imbalance, and the unprecedented displacement of populations. In a concise question-and-answer format, Gelvin outlines the social, political, and economic contours of the New Middle East, illuminating the current crisis in the region and exploring how it is likely to evolve in the decades to come.
Download or read book The New Arab Wars written by Marc Lynch and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marc Lynch's last book, The Arab Uprising, described the then ongoing revolutionary change and prospect for the consolidation of democracy in key Arab countries that still seemed possible. But Lynch saw dark signs on the horizon, especially in Syria. That book ended with the hope that the Arab uprisings heralded a fundamental change over the long-term, but with the warning that Arab regimes would not easily give up their power. Instead, Egypt’s revolution has given way to a military coup; Libya’s produced a failed state; Yemen is the battleground for a proxy war and will be destroyed; Syria has become a sprawling humanitarian catastrophe that will take a generation to begin to recover from. At the same time, America has less and less reason to want to engage with the region and now has only one functional ally apart from Israel. The New Arab Wars describes how the political landscape of an entire region has been convulsed, with much of it given over to anarchy, as proxy wars on behalf of three competing powers—Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia—scar the region. It is a brutal, compelling story.
Download or read book Culture and Customs of Saudi Arabia written by David E. Long and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-07-30 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saudi Arabia is a young nation with an ancient history. It is one of the most conservative traditional societies in the world grappling with the impact of modernization wrought by the influx of great oil wealth beginning only in the mid twentieth century. Saudi culture is in constant flux, and the culture gap between the West and Saudi Islamic culture is wide. Culture and Customs of Saudi Arabia is the first cultural overview of country and provides timely, authoritative insight into a major Middle Eastern power. The Saudis are a proud people with a closed society, but circumstances have caused them to play an important role in current world affairs. The author has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia and has extensively used his contacts there to provide up-to-date material. Saudi culture developed through age-old interactions between the Arabian peoples and their harsh desert environment. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, and the basic Islamic values of Saudi culture have remained to this day. The themes of an ancient desert society infused with Islam values on a collision course with modernity are interplayed throughout chapters on the land, people, and history, traditional Islamic culture and modernization, the extended family and gender roles, cuisine and dress, social customs, rites of passage, and holidays, communication and mass media, and artistic expression. Color photos and a map, chronology, and glossary round out the narrative.
Download or read book Kings and Presidents written by Bruce Riedel and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's account of the often-fraught U.S.-Saudi relationship Saudi Arabia and the United States have been partners since 1943, when President Roosevelt met with two future Saudi monarchs. Subsequent U.S. presidents have had direct relationships with those kings and their successors—setting the tone for a special partnership between an absolute monarchy with a unique Islamic identity and the world's most powerful democracy. Although based in large part on economic interests, the U.S.-Saudi relationship has rarely been smooth. Differences over Israel have caused friction since the early days, and ambiguities about Saudi involvement—or lack of it—in the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States continue to haunt the relationship. Now, both countries have new, still-to be-tested leaders in President Trump and King Salman. Bruce Riedel for decades has followed these kings and presidents during his career at the CIA, the White House, and Brookings. This book offers an insider's account of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with unique insights. Using declassified documents, memoirs by both Saudis and Americans, and eyewitness accounts, this book takes the reader inside the royal palaces, the holy cities, and the White House to gain an understanding of this complex partnership.
Download or read book Behind the Kingdom s Veil written by Susanne Koelbl and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating account of the significant changes underway in Saudi Arabia based on years of excellent reporting on the ground.” —Bruce Riedel, director of the Brookings Institution Intelligence Project, author of Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States Since FDR Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most secretive countries. Now, Susanne Koelbl, award-winning journalist for the German news magazine Der Spiegel, unveils many secrets of this mysterious kingdom. For years she traveled the Middle East, and recently lived in Riyadh during the most dramatic changes since the country’s founding. She has cultivated relationships on every level of Saudi society and is equally at ease with ultra-conservative Wahhabi preachers, oppositionists, and women from all walks of life. In this “piercingly powerful book” (Ahmed Rahid, New York Times-bestselling author of Taliban), you can have breakfast with Royal Highnesses; meet Osama bin Laden’s bomb-making trainer; enter palaces of secret service chiefs; listen to intimate conversations with women about their newly offered freedoms; learn about journalist Jamal Khashoggi; and view an in-depth portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), as you learn about the not-so-obvious facts of the kingdom’s history, politics, customs, and hidden power relations.
