Saudi Arabia's Road to Implosion -- Sandra Mackey, National Interest
As the budding blossoms of the Arab Spring of 2011 wither in the fall of 2013, Saudi Arabia’s fragile stability hangs from the shriveled stem of the House of Saud. The threat posed by a region in turmoil to the kingdom’s ruling elite, the strategic interests of the United States, and the health of the world economy is not so much the danger of an explosion of political unrest within the kingdom as an implosion of the country itself.
Although vast expanses now encompassed within its borders were never occupied by a foreign conqueror, Saudi Arabia did not find unity and statehood until 1932, when Abdul Aziz al Saud pulled together under his rule diverse regions containing tribes of the desert and families of the cities. But Abdul Aziz and his descendants over the last eight decades have never attempted to implant an overarching identity beyond the Wahhabi sect of Islam. Instead, Saudi Arabia is a family enterprise ruling over six distinct regions held together by theology, tribal alliances and the largess that flows out of the House of Saud.
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My Comment: Sandra Mackey accurately dissects the power that tribalism/religion/and regionalism plays in Saudi Arabia .... and why it will be these forces that will eventually result in the implosion of Saudi Arabia .... not with a bang like what is happening in the rest of the Middle East .... but with a whimper that will quickly be followed by foreign forces who will position themselves to have access to Saudi oil.
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