Category Archives: Saudi Arabia
Spreading the Gospel: Asian leaders wary of Saudi religious diplomacy
James Dorsey says leaders of Asian states recently visited by Saudi King Salman are waking up to the detrimental impact of Saudi religious diplomacy which is fostering sectarianism and intolerance in their societies. Read more [...]
Women’s gyms lay bare limits of Saudi reforms
James Dorsey says the Saudi decision to license women-only gyms is progress in a country where women have few rights, but restrictions on what activities the gyms will be allowed to offer reflect the continuing power of reactionary forces. Read more [...]
Creating Frankenstein’s Monster: Saudi Arabia’s ultra-conservative footprint in Africa
James Dorsey views Saudi Arabia's role in spurring political violence in sub-Saharan Africa, noting the Saudis spent $100 billion in 50 years on promoting an intolerant, supremacist, anti-pluralistic version of Islam. Read more [...]
Think that 2016 was a tough year for Saudi Arabia? Wait till you see 2017
James Dorsey looks ahead to a probable bleak year for an economically-stressed Saudi Arabia where a reassessment of US foreign policy in the Middle East and the Gulf seems set to add to its setbacks in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Egypt. Read more [...]
What is behind the conflicts in the Arab world?
James Dorsey examines some of the key fundamental issues behind the conflicts and disintegration that have been wracking the Middle East and North Africa especially since the onset of the Arab Nightmare in 2011. Read more [...]
Reformist Saudi prince bounces up against flawed education system and ingrained social mores
James Dorsey says social changes envisaged in Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman's masterplan for the future will most likely flounder on ultra-conservative tribal mores and the lack of critical thinking and analytical skills among youths. Read more [...]
Is Saudi Arabia Zion?
As relations between Israel and the Al Saud family warm up, James Dorsey explores the prospects offered by long-forgotten research by Arab historian Kamal Salibi which concluded that “Judaism’s Zion was not located in Israel but in Saudi Arabia”. Read more [...]
The Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks
Lawrence Davidson examines how Saudi Arabia, in the case of the 9/11 attacks, and Israel, in the case of the attack on the US intelligence ship, the USS Liberty, managed to get away with what were in effect acts of war against the United States. Read more [...]
What happens when Arab autocrats are left to fend for themselves?
James M. Dorsey attributes Washington’s disengagement from Saudi Arabia to its refocus on Asia, and argues that Saudi attempts at regional leadership through sectarianism and war are doomed to fail for objective, structural reasons. Read more [...]
Creating Frankenstein’s Monster: The Saudi export of Wahhabism
James M. Dorsey argues that Wahhabism may be the undoing of the Saudi state as it promotes domestic and regional strife and is increasingly acknowledged worldwide as the foundation of Islamic State and other Islamist terror groups. Read more [...]
