Saudi Arabia in Transition
Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change

This book presents new insights and the most up-to-date research on Saudi Arabia's social, cultural, economic and political dynamics.

Bernard Haykel (Edited by), Thomas Hegghammer (Edited by), Stéphane Lacroix (Edited by)

9780521185097, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 January 2015

357 pages, 22 b/w illus. 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.52 kg

'… a good source of information and analysis for the general public and for specialists.' William Ochsenwald, Bustan: The Middle East book Review

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.

1. Introduction Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer and Stéphane Lacroix
Part I. Politics: 2. Rentier exceptionalism: oil and political mobilization in Saudi Arabia Gregory Gause
3. The dogma of development: technopolitics and power in Saudi Arabia Toby Jones
4. Enforcing the state's Islam: the functioning of the committee of senior scholars Nabil Mouline
Part II. Oil: 5. Saudi Arabia and the world oil market Giacomo Luciani
6. The political economy of regional development in post-World War II Saudi Arabia Steffen Hertog
7. Oil in Saudi Arabian culture and politics: from tribal poets to Al-Qaeda's ideologues Bernard Haykel
Part III. Islam and Islamism: 8. From Wahhabi to Salafi David Commins
9. Understanding stability and dissent in the kingdom: the role of the jama'at in Saudi politics Stéphane Lacroix
10. The struggle for authority: the Shaykhs of Jihadi-Salafism in Saudi Arabia, 1997–2003 Saud al-Sarhan
11. 'Classical' and 'global' jihadism in Saudi Arabia Thomas Hegghammer
Part IV. Social Change: 12. Raiders and traders: a poet's lament of the end of the Bedouin heroic age Abd al-Aziz H. Al Fahad
13. Rootless trees: genealogical politics in Saudi Arabia Abd al-Aziz H. Al Fahad
14. Caught between religion and state: women in Saudi Arabia Madawi al-Rasheed
15. Engendering Saudi consumerism: a study of young women's practices in Riyadh's shopping malls Amélie Le Renard.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Politics & government [JP]