Author: Michael Quentin Morton Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 0857734113 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
Buraimi is an oasis in an otherwise bleak desert on the border between Oman and the UAE. In the early twentieth century, it shot to notoriety as oil brought the world's attention to this corner of the Arabian Peninsula, and the ensuing battle over energy resources between regional and global superpowers began. In this lively account, Michael Quentin Morton tells the story of how the power of oil and the conflicting interests of the declining British Empire and the United States all came to a head with the conflict between Great Britain and Saudi Arabia, shaping the very future of the Gulf states. The seeds of conflict over Buraimi were sown during the oil negotiations of 1933 in Jedda, where the international oil companies vied for control of the future industry in the Arabian Peninsula. As a result of lengthy discussions, including the efforts of men such as St John Philby and Ibn Saud himself, the Saudis granted an oil concession for Eastern Arabia without precisely defining the geographical limits of the area to be conceded. Matters came to a head in 1949 when Saudi Arabia made claim to the territory, and Great Britain, acting on behalf of Oman and Abu Dhabi, challenged the actions of the Saudis. Attempts at arbitration failed, and only one year before Britain's defeat over the Suez Canal, Britain expelled Saudi Arabia from the oasis. In the wake of Britain's withdrawal 'East of Suez' in the early 1970s, the dispute was apparently solved between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But whilst the controversy dominated Anglo-Saudi relations for more than 30 years, it still casts its shadow across the Gulf today, threatening to expose the fragility of the West's ever-present dependency on the region for its supply of oil. Morton brings a range of historical figures to life, from the American oilmen arriving in steamy Jedda in the 1930s, to the rival sheikhs of Buraimi itself competing for power, wealth and allegiances as well as the great players in world politics: Churchill, Truman and Ibn Saud. This entertaining and thoroughly researched book is both a story of a decisive conflict in the history of Middle East politics and also of the great changes that the discovery of oil brought to this previously desolate land.
Author: Haifa Alangari Publisher: Garnet & Ithaca Press ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
In June 1916 outside the Grand Mosque at Mecca, the Arab Revolt was proclaimed by the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, with Britain's full backing of his authority and leadership. Ten years later, on the very same spot, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud was inaugurated as the Sultan of Najd and King of the Hijaz. In this book the authority of these two leaders, Hussein of the Hijaz and Ibn Saud of Najd, is examined and related to Britain's role in the region during the Great War. The author argues that foreign intervention may affect the political structure of a country, but cannot for long sustain its leader in power if the leader does not have a supportive political base with its operating machinery. In the setting of Arabia in the early twentieth century one key requisite in gaining power was the leader's ability to mobilize the various social groups to work for the interest of the state. Ibn Saud successfully induced his social groups to identify their interests with those of his religio-political state, whereas Hussein alienated his social groups by neglecting his religious role as Sharif and adopting pan-Arabism as his state's ideology. In the contest for power between these two leaders, Ibn Saud's political strategy triumphed and established him as the master of the whole of Arabia. Drawing on a wealth of documentary sources, Dr Haifa Alangari provides a highly original comparative study of the struggle for power in Arabia against major political forces that reshaped Arabia and the map of the Middle East.
Author: Bernard Haykel Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1316194191 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 361
Book Description
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.
Author: Robert Lacey Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1101140739 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 496
Book Description
"It's all here-Islam, the family tree, a sea of oil and money to match, palace intrigue...This is high drama and an epic tale." -Tom Brokaw Though Saudi Arabia sits on one of the richest oil deposits in the world, it also produced fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. In this immensely important book, journalist Robert Lacey draws on years of access to every circle of Saudi society giving readers the fullest portrait yet of a land straddling the worlds of medievalism and modernity. Moving from the bloody seizure of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, through the Persian Gulf War, to the delicate U.S.-Saudi relations in a post 9/11 world, Inside the Kingdom brings recent history to vivid life and offers a powerful story of a country learning how not to be at war with itself.
Author: Jamāl Wākīm Publisher: Garnet Publishing - Ithaca Press ISBN: 9780863725111 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This highly topical book argues that the success or failure of Syria's policies is directly linked to the degree to which these policies accord with those of Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and that the country has been subject throughout its history to competition between the forces occupying the geostrategic spheres that surround it. The book further argues that the influence of these spheres is not restricted to foreign policy, but also extends to interaction with cultural, economic, and social groups, thus transforming the geo-political to geo-cultural, geo-economic, and geo-social. Ordered chronologically, the book deals chapter-by-chapter with the different conflicts and struggles that have surrounded Syria throughout history, detailing the constant struggles to control it by Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt. It examines the political changes that have taken place during the term of President Bashar Assad, including the role of the 'superpowers' in seeking to achieve control of the region, and it concludes that whoever controls Syria can tighten their grip on Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt, and thus the whole of the Middle East.
Author: Bradley Hope Publisher: Hachette Books ISBN: 0306846659 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 362
Book Description
From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters comes a revelatory look at the inner workings of the world's most powerful royal family, and how the struggle for succession produced Saudi Arabia's charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS. 35-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley. But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent by holding 300 people, including prominent members of the Saudi royal family, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel and elsewhere for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle—what mattered was the flex. Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS' precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of US-Saudi relations for more than 80 years: oil, for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince. The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything—and anyone—that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world. Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
Author: Jesse Ferris Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691155143 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
Nasser's Gamble draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as "my Vietnam." Jesse Ferris argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi-Egyptian struggle over Yemen, Ferris demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the "Arab Cold War" set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, Nasser's Gamble brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.
Author: Simon Mabon Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 0857729071 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 301
Book Description
In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, relations between states in the Middle East were reconfigured and reassessed overnight. Amongst the most-affected was the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The existence of a new regime in Tehran led to increasingly vitriolic confrontations between these two states, often manifesting themselves in the conflicts across the region, such as those in Lebanon and Iraq, and more recently in Bahrain and Syria. In order to shed light upon this rivalry, Simon Mabon examines the different identity groups within Saudi Arabia and Iran (made up of various religions, ethnicities and tribal groupings), proposing that internal insecurity has an enormous impact on the wider ideological and geopolitical competition between the two. With analysis of this heated and often uneasy relationship and its impact on the wider Middle East, this book is vital for those researching international relations and diplomacy in the region.
Author: Michael Quentin Morton
Author: Haifa Alangari
Author: Bernard Haykel
Author: Robert Lacey
Author: Nikolaos van Dam
Author: Madawi Al-Rasheed
Author: Jamāl Wākīm
Author: Bradley Hope
Author: Jesse Ferris
Author: Simon Mabon