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"Saudi Arabia -- Politics and government -- 20th century"
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Saudi Arabia, 1975-2020
\"The fifth in the CAIW series, this title reflects 50 years of experience of Cambridge (UK)-based World of Information, which since 1975 has followed the region's politics and economics. In the period following the Second World War, Saudi Arabia--a curious fusion of medieval theocracy, unruly dictatorship and extrovert wealth--has been called a country of 'superlatives.' The modernisation of the Kingdom's oil industry has been a smooth process: its oilfields are highly sophisticated. However, social modernisation has not kept pace. 'Reform', long a preoccupation among the Peninsula's leaders does not necessarily go hand in hand with religion\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Retrofitting Office Buildings to Be Green and Energy-Efficient
Aimed at real estate industry professionals, developers, and investors, this guidebook fully explains the best practices and methods for retrofitting an existing office building to be green—increasing the efficiency of resource use while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment. Covering numerous eco-friendly systems, this reference demonstrates how green features are definitely worth the investments they require. Case study examples of projects that have incorporated these aspects as well as how they were constructed are included.
eBook
Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud : economic and financial foundations of the state
At its founding in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was characterized by tribal warfare, political instability, chronic financial shortages and economic crises. As a desert chieftain, Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, the ruler and king until 1953, had the skills, the cunning and the power to control the tribes and bring peace to this realm. But financial and economic matters were not his forte and these he left mostly to a single individual, Abdullah al-Sulayman al-Hamdan. He was entrusted with nearly all of the country's early financial dealings and administrative development. This book examines the role of the Ministry of Finance and its minister, Abdullah al-Sulayman, in holding the country together financially and administratively until the promise of substantial oil income was realized a few years after the end of World War II.
Book
Desert kingdom : how oil and water forged modern Saudi Arabia
Oil and water, and the science and technology used to harness them, have long been at the heart of political authority in Saudi Arabia. Oil's abundance, and the fantastic wealth it generated, has been a keystone in the political primacy of the kingdom's ruling family. The other bedrock element was water, whose importance was measured by its dearth. Over much of the twentieth century, it was through efforts to control and manage oil and water that the modern state of Saudi Arabia emerged.
The central government's power over water, space, and people expanded steadily over time, enabled by increasing oil revenues. The operations of the Arabian American Oil Company proved critical to expansion and to achieving power over the environment. Political authority in Saudi Arabia took shape through global networks of oil, science, and expertise. And, where oil and water were central to the forging of Saudi authoritarianism, they were also instrumental in shaping politics on the ground. Nowhere was the impact more profound than in the oil-rich Eastern Province, where the politics of oil and water led to a yearning for national belonging and to calls for revolution.
Saudi Arabia is traditionally viewed through the lenses of Islam, tribe, and the economics of oil. Desert Kingdom now provides an alternative history of environmental power and the making of the modern Saudi state. It demonstrates how vital the exploitation of nature and the roles of science and global experts were to the consolidation of political authority in the desert.
eBook
Saudi interventions in Yemen : a historical comparison of ontological insecurity
\"This book explains the Saudi decision to launch a direct military intervention in Yemen in 2015 by comparing it with the monarchy's response to Egyptian intervention into Yemen in 1962. It does so through the lens of domestic politics by tracing the monarchy's response to the opposition in both time periods, and how this was informed by the different regional contexts of the 1960s and the 2011 Arab Spring. The study argues that Saudi Arabia enhanced its own institutions, including a pan-Islamic ideological justification to rule, in response to aggression from Egypt and its revolutionary pan-Arab ideology. This contributed to a relatively cautious Saudi foreign policy in response to regional threats from Arab nationalism, along with a strategy of co-optation within the kingdom. In contrast, the non-ideological threat embodied in the Arab Spring posed a more existential threat to Saudi legitimacy. The new crown prince manipulated the regime's sense of anxiety from this to consolidate power through further scapegoating of the Shi'a minority, exacerbated tensions with foreign rivals, and, most blatantly, the 2015 intervention in Yemen. Comparing Saudi foreign policy changes from the Arab nationalist period to the post-Arab Spring period, this volume is a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in political science, history, international relations and Middle East politics\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Desert dispute
The struggle to delineate the boundaries of south-eastern Arabia can claim to be one of the longest running diplomatic disputes of the twentieth century, which has echoes to this day. This study, by the foremost authority on the subject, is an exhaustive one, based on thorough research in the relevant archives and direct experience of the dispute. As such it will be the standard reference work on this question for all who have an interest in the Gulf Arab states, their territorial origins and its effects on their increasing role in regional and world affairs.
eBook
Saudi Arabia and Iraq as friends and enemies : borders, tribes and a history shared
Saudi Arabia and Iraq have a shared history, as both friends and enemies at one and the same time, and their growth as modern nation-states must be understood in that joint context. This book establishes a new narrative and timeline for bilateral relations between the two countries, while examining the work of other Arab and Western scholars, in order to excavate the biases underlying so much previous work on this topic. In doing so, it proposes a new way of looking at state formation and boundaries in the Middle East, by showing how the interactions of regional neighbours left an indelible imprint on the domestic politics of one another. The two different visions for managing the border that Saudi Arabia and Iraq developed in the 1920s generated mistrust on both sides, leading to a gradual process of estrangement that lasted through the 1950s and beyond.
BOOK
Remaking Muslim Politics
There is a struggle for the hearts and minds of Muslims unfolding across the Islamic world. The conflict pits Muslims who support pluralism and democracy against others who insist such institutions are antithetical to Islam. With some 1.3 billion people worldwide professing Islam, the outcome of this contest is sure to be one of the defining political events of the twenty-first century.
Bringing together twelve engaging essays by leading specialists focusing on individual countries, this pioneering book examines the social origins of civil-democratic Islam, its long-term prospects, its implications for the West, and its lessons for our understanding of religion and politics in modern times.
Although depicted by its opponents as the product of political ideas \"made in the West\" civil-democratic Islam represents an indigenous politics that seeks to build a distinctive Islamic modernity. In countries like Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it has become a major political force. Elsewhere its influence is apparent in efforts to devise Islamic grounds for women's rights, religious tolerance, and democratic citizenship. Everywhere it has generated fierce resistance from religious conservatives. Examining this high-stakes clash,Remaking Muslim Politicsbreaks new ground in the comparative study of Islam and democracy. The contributors are Bahman Baktiari, Thomas Barfield, John R. Bowen, Dale F. Eickelman, Robert W. Hefner, Peter Mandaville, Augustus Richard Norton, Gwenn Okruhlik, Michael G. Peletz, Diane Singerman, Jenny B. White, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman.
eBook
Contesting the Saudi State
The terms Wahhabi or Salafi are seen as interchangeable and frequently misunderstood by outsiders. However, as Madawi al-Rasheed explains in a fascinating exploration of Saudi Arabia in the twenty-first century, even Saudis do not agree on their meaning. Under the influence of mass education, printing, new communication technology, and global media, they are forming their own conclusions and debating religion and politics in traditional and novel venues, often violating official taboos and the conservative values of the Saudi society. Drawing on classical religious sources, contemporary readings and interviews, Al-Rasheed presents an ethnography of consent and contest, exploring the fluidity of the boundaries between the religious and political. Bridging the gap between text and context, the author also examines how states and citizens manipulate religious discourse for purely political ends, and how this manipulation generates unpredictable reactions whose control escapes those who initiated them.
eBook