Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is of unquestionable geopolitical and geostrategic importance. Not only does the Kingdom lead the world in oil production, it also holds sway throughout the Middle East and is home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Zakir Hussain, in Saudi Arabia in a Multipolar World: Changing Dynamics, offers a compelling view of Saudi Arabia by welding together an impressive collection of historical materials, statistics and policies that he has collected on the country. What emerges in this book is the importance of internal, regional and international relations in shaping the contemporary Saudi state. This context allows us to critically examine how contemporary politics in Saudi Arabia were shaped and the continued interplay of regional and global actors in contem-porary Saudi politics.
Hussain begins his insightful and comprehensive examination of Saudi Arabia with the metaphor of the crossroads. As one reads through the book, the aptness and strength of this metaphor becomes increasingly apparent. Perhaps most clearly articulated early in Hussain’s book is the question of crossroads in regards to the choices for the future with which Saudi Arabian officials are currently grappling. Hussain alludes to the traditional stories often told of the Gulf: the pull of tradition and the desire to modernise. However, Hussain destabilises this easy narrative through detailed analyses of contemporary economics and social relations. Hussain asks: How should Saudi Arabia’s government adapt to changing demographics, economic inequality and women’s issues? To answer this, he offers a nuanced analysis of the internal pressures faced by the Saudi government and brings together a wealth of data to support a sophisticated picture of contemporary social issues. Even more impressive is that Hussain is able to do this without falling into the simple tropes that often surround discussions of Saudi society. In the first chapter, for example, he critically examines the impact of poverty in Saudi Arabia. Noting that one quarter of Saudi citizens are considered poor, Hussain examines how economic disparities tie into political, social and religious movements. Hussain also addresses the issues that arise with the increasing education of women in conjunction with continued legal restrictions on women’s activities. Again, without offering a simplistic answer to the challenges the Kingdom faces, Hussain points to the complicated factors and, in doing so, the possibilities for the future.
Hussain extends his analysis of the pressures that Saudi Arabia faces as it looks to the future by examining the large role that regional movements play in the country. He brings in particularly strong analyses of the Arab Awakening, contemporary Yemen and the expansion of ISIS in the Arabian Peninsula. This timely perspective is supported, once again, by a wealth of data that clearly illustrates how Saudi’s regional context centrally influences questions of security within the Kingdom, a theme that reoccurs throughout Saudi Arabia in a Multipolar World. Significantly, in these discussions, the perspective is not focused solely on the United States’ and/or European security interests, but also on Saudi Arabia’s concerns over security and the resulting policies. This refreshing perspective is well grounded, and illustrates how security, historically and today, has had a multiplicity of ways in which it was conceptualised and deployed.
Not only is Saudi Arabia located at a crossroads of future prospects, but as idea, policies, people and materials circulate globally, Saudi Arabia is increasingly becoming a central crossroads where disparate political actors engage. Hussain’s examination of American, Chinese and Indian engagements with Saudi Arabia provide insight into how Saudi Arabia has formed strategic alliances as a means of ensuring security and stability. In this discussion, Saudi Arabia emerges as a land that has and continues to be deeply imbricated in transnational trade and global assemblages. While the United States’ engagement with Saudi Arabia has, perhaps, been given the most attention, Hussain’s investigation of this relationship seems fresh and the data he provides would be of use to many researchers. Particularly evocative is his use of the analytic of ‘strategic alliance’ as a means of ensuring internal Saudi security and as a way that the United States has developed a variety of approaches concerning Saudi Arabia as a source of oil and also a potential site of hostile activities.
Chapters Four and Five, in which Hussain explores Saudi-Sino and Saudi-Indian relations, are rich explorations of relationships that have been largely ignored in examinations of Saudi Arabia. In Chapter Four, Hussain outlines the process by which China and Saudi Arabia have developed relations. Energy, trade and investment serve as the centre of this relationship. Not only does Hussain outline Saudi-Chinese relations, but he also situates these relations within the larger context of China’s relations with other Gulf Cooperative Council States, Iran and Israel.
While Saudi-Chinese relations may be relatively new, Indian Ocean trade routes have connected India and Saudi Arabia for millennia. In Chapter Five, Hussain provides a detailed history of Indian-Saudi relations starting as early as 1000
Throughout this book, Zakir Hussain clearly illustrates the crossroads on which Saudi Arabia sits. These crossroads include both future possibilities and challenges faced by Saudi Arabia and the various ways in which Saudi Arabia has been approached, geopolitically and geostrategically, as a dynamic site of engagement. Overall, Zakir Hussain’s Saudi Arabia in a Multipolar World: Changing Dynamics is a versatile text that would be a valuable resource both to those knowledgeable about contemporary Saudi Arabian politics as well as to students. Well written and engaging, Hussain deftly presents a diverse array of materials and provides the reader with knowledgeable insights and helpful examples. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Saudi Arabia.