Saudi Arabia: Power, Legitimacy and Survival

by Niblock; Tim

• ISBN13: 9780415303101
• ISBN10: 0415303109
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-04-12
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

"With the death of King Fahd and the succession of Prince Abdullah who is facing international pressure to undertake reforms, Saudi Arabia provides a unique and comprehensive understanding of this state at a crucial time. This book is essential reading for those with interests in Saudi Arabia and its role in Middle Eastern politics and on the international stage."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Tim Niblock is Professor of Arab Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Note on transliteration	ix
Chronology	x
List of abbreviations	xv
Maps	xvii
Introduction	1	(20)
The contemporary interest	1	(6)
The need for a new approach: devising an explanatory model of the dynamics of Saudi Arabian politics	7	(2)
Sources of regime legitimacy	9	(4)
Circles of cooperation and bases of support	13	(4)
The policy processes	17	(1)
The structure of the book: chapters and themes	18	(3)
State formation	21	(26)
Traditional dynamics and the changing domestic and international environments	21	(2)
The Saudi emirates of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their legacy	23	(8)
Capturing power and spreading control: establishing the third Saudi state, 1902--32	31	(1)
The Kingdom's political processes prior to oil, 1932--48	32	(6)
Oil revenues and their impact on state and economy, 1948--58	38	(4)
The struggle for power: determining the future of the Saudi state, 1958--62	42	(3)
Conclusion	45	(2)
Faisal and the new polity, 1962--79	47	(21)
Faisal, Khalid and the centralised state, 1962--79	47	(2)
Re-shaping the economy	49	(5)
Social dynamics of the new polity: the stabilising social milieu	54	(4)
The conduct of foreign policy	58	(6)
Domestic political outcomes	64	(2)
Conclusion	66	(2)
Redirecting the polity: 1979 to the present	68	(46)
New problems and new areas of confrontation	68	(5)
Economic development and the problems of `asabiyah capitalism	73	(4)
Responding to the new Islamist challenge: the 1980s	77	(8)
Responding to the changing global and regional orders: Arab disunity, Gulf insecurity, the US alliance and the Gulf wars	85	(5)
The opposition and reform movements, 1990 to the present	90	(14)
Re-fashioning the political and governmental system	104	(5)
The debate on reform and the struggle for power within the Al Su'ud	109	(3)
Conclusion	112	(2)
The challenge of economic reform	114	(29)
Introduction	114	(1)
Areas of existing economic inadequacy	115	(7)
The record of reform before 2000	122	(2)
Economic reform since 2000: the dynamics and the administrative structures	124	(2)
Reforming the legal framework to encourage foreign investment	126	(4)
The impact of legislation on actual investment	130	(3)
The WTO and trade liberalisation	133	(2)
Privatisation	135	(2)
Measuring the reforms against the needs	137	(4)
Conclusion	141	(2)
Foreign policy: dilemmas of the alliance with the United States and the challenge of international terrorism	143	(28)
Overall perspective	143	(2)
1979--82: deepening the basis of the alliance with the United States following the Iranian revolution	145	(2)
1982--90: global partnership with the United States and the Afghan struggle	147	(4)
1990--96: restructuring the relationship following the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait	151	(5)
1996--98: intensification of the international terrorist threat to Saudi Arabia and the United States	156	(4)
1998--2001: from the East Africa bombings to 9/11	160	(3)
2001--05: the impact of 9/11	163	(7)
Conclusion	170	(1)
Conclusion: crisis, reform and stability	171	(6)
Bibliographical survey of the existing literature	177	(3)
Glossary	180	(2)
Bibliography	182	(13)
Index	195