The Saudi Enigma: A HistoryZed Books, 2005 - 257 pagina's Saudi Arabia is a major piece on the world geopolitical chessboard. Despite the suspicion that has enveloped the country since September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia remains the key US ally in the Arab Middle East, a role secured by its continuing position as the world's largest oil exporter and its ever growing influence in the Muslim world. Yet the country is still very poorly understood. Western observers have rarely been able to penetrate this closed society and its opaque political system. Clichés about the role of oil wealth and fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam often serve to further mask the reality. The true complexity of Saudi society cannot be reduced to a mixture of poorly assimilated modernity and medieval Bedouin tradition. |
Inhoudsopgave
Osama bin Laden and Saudi Arabia | 5 |
The island of the Arabs | 15 |
What is Wahhabism? | 43 |
Genesis and structure of the modern state 19021973 | 71 |
Bellicose Islamism? 19732003 | 102 |
From the era of opulence to the age of need | 133 |
An ambiguous social modernization | 153 |
The appearance of women | 173 |
The Gulf War generation | 189 |
Conclusion | 208 |
from the Riyadh Spring to reform from | 215 |
Chronology | 222 |
Notes | 228 |
246 | |