Product Description

In the wake of 9/11, 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. Cliches about the role of oil wealth and fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam mask the true complexity of Saudi society. Pascal Menoret is critical of the standard depiction of the Bedouin character of the regime. He illustrates the emerging manifestations of Saudi national identity, as fiercely reformist, complex and varied. Underlying his account is a sophisticated economic history of the Saudi state, from the eighteenth century to the present day, which details all the alliances and manoeuvres that have brought the country and its rulers to their current precarious position.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #599996 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-25
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Finally, we have a book by someone who has a robust social science approach to what is a modern and fast-changing society, who has lived in, and thought a lot about, the country, who does not fall into conspiracy theory, who avoids the anti-Saudi banalities of the outside world as much as the pieties of the regime, who, in a word, tells us how the country actually works.' - Professor Fred Halliday, London School of Economics 'A treasure-house of precise references and analyses, this book does not set out to provide simple answers, but to illustrate the great complexity of the country and to account for the deep changes it has gone through. Particularly enlightrening on the current crisis and the official response to it since 2002.' - Sophie Pommier, Le Monde Diplomatique 'A historical and sociological analysis, a balance sheet that eschews illusions.' - Francoise Crouigneau, Les Echos

About the Author
Pascal Menoret worked as a civil servant with the French foreign ministry. He developed a deep understanding of Saudi society during an extensive period as attache to the French embassy in Riyadh, beginning a few days after September 11, 2001, and is the author of several publications in French on Saudi politics and society. The book is translated by Patrick Camiller.