Kings, Oil, and God

1
Kings, Oil, and God

• Rule and Dissent in Saudi Arabia

2
How did Saudi state-building differ from
state-building in Turkey, Iraq, and elsewhere?

• More indigenous process
• No direct colonialism
• Tribal/marriage alliances
• Wahabbi Islam the Ikhwan
• Different symbolic vocabulary
• Ancient claims
• Islam
• Gradual process of unification and
  statification from the inside out
  
• Ibn Sauds victories
• Formal recognition 1932
• Informal state practices
• Council of Ministers 1950s
• No real bureaucratization until 1970s

3
King Faisal, Rules 1964-1975
King Abd al-Aziz, 1876-1953
King Abdullah, 2005-present
King Fahd (II), died 2005
4
Three tensions in Saudi politics

• S. Arabia an Islamic state, but Islam
  subservient to Saudi state
  
• Quran as constitution
• Basic Law codifying crimes etc
• Power struggles between the royal family, ulema,
  other Islamic activists
  
• Puritanical (Wahhabi Islam) but modern
  wealthy
  
• What to buy with oil?
• Urbanization, commercialization
• Politics as Tribal (familial) but globally
  integrated
  
• Foreign workers

5
Oil

• Discovered 1938
• Aramco/Saudi Aramco
• 1974-75 330 increase in oil revenues
• More proven oil reserves than any other country
  (about 25 of proven world supply)
  
• About 18 US oil from S. Arabia
• makes up 90-95 of total Saudi export earnings
• 70-80 of state revenues
• 40 of the country's GDP

Oil tanks at the Ju'aymah oil refinery in Saudi
Arabia Photo Aramco Services Co.
6
What money can buy

• Defense expenditures
• About a third of Saudi annual revenue spent on
  defense
  
• International distribution of oil wealth
• PLO and elsewhere
• Domestic distribution of oil wealth
• Massive programs of economic and social
  development
  
• Expanded roads, infrastructure, architecture,
  communications
  
• Expansion in education
• Universities
• Education for girls

Armed helicopter "Combat Scout" operating from
King Khalid Military City. Photo Cees-Jan van
der Ende

7
The Balancing Act Islam

• ulama as paid state officials
• Quran as constitution
• (Literalist) sharia as legal code
• Extensive influence over education, legal system,
  public morality
  
• Morality Police
• Limits on religious freedom
• Double-edged sword?

Photo http//www.deskpicture.com/DPs/Places/mecca
.jpg
8
The role of oil two perspectives

• Rentier State model
• Rentier Statea state that receives substantial
  income (rents) from foreign sources, and where
  only a few people are engaged in the generation
  of this wealth.
• Oil as supporting extending pre-existing
  patterns of power (Fandy)
  

Al-Murabba palace, home to abd Al Aziz and later
center of government.
9
Dissent Origins

• Contradictions between wealth/Wahabbi Islam
• Corrupt royalty vs ord. people and Wahabbi
  purists
  
• New education system and expansion of
  universities
  
• Drop in oil revenues
• Early 1980s Oil drops from 32 a barrel to 15
  30 drop in state revenues
  
• Economic crisis
• Unemployment, drop in income, infrastructural
  decay
  
• Foreign affairs
• Iranian Revolution, Soviet invasion of
  Afghanistan
  
• 1991 Gulf War and stationing of US troops in S.
  Arabia leads to crisis of legitimacy
  

King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, established
in 1967.
The First Gulf War. Photo http//www.army.mod.u
k/26regtra/our_history/
10
Dissent Who

• Early secular dissent
• 1950s-1960s Baathists, Arab nationalists,
  leftists
  
• Islamic dissent
• Criticism of the regime, petitions, call for more
  popular participation, demonstrations
  
• Late 1970s Siege on Mecca mosque, Shiite riots
  stemming from discrimination
  
• Radical Islamist dissent
• Increasing opposition, 1980s and 1990s
• Memorandum of Advice
• Formation of major Islamist opposition groups
• Jihadist returnees from Afghanistan
• Osama bin Laden Advice Reform Committee, al
  Qaeda
  
• insurgency, 2003-2005

Surveying the scene of the 1996 Khobar Towers
bombing, in which more than 20 people died and
more than 300 were wounded.
11
State Responses

• Official ulama mobilized to support government
• Institutional reforms
• New Basic law, (unelected) Consultative Council,
  law of provinces
  
• Municipal elections, 2005
• New legal code
• State crackdown
• Hundreds arrested, many executed
• Major campaign against Islamist dissent, media
  campaign on behalf of moderate Islam
  
• Personnel changes
• All accentuated after 2003 suicide bombings in S.
  Arabia itself

A photographer records a public execution in
Jeddah from behind the bars of a window Rex
Features, photo from Amnesty International.