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Mohammed Bin Salman: The Man Who Transformed Saudi Arabia From Pawn To King
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as we know it is a western creation
Its liberation from the yoke of Ottoman colonialism is perhaps one of the seismic events of the 20th century.
Anyone who has seen the epic movie —Lawrence of Arabia —might understand the point being made here.
But there’s so much more to this nation-state than a motion picture.
What we did not see in the film was the work undertaken by Abdulaziz Ibn Saud in bringing the neighbouring kingdoms under his control, which led to the founding of the nation-state which you all know today.
And when oil was discovered in 1938, it became clear that it wasn’t going to be business as usual and its fate would be tied to the biggest bully on the block — America — who needed endless supply of the oil reserves located beneath the Saudi earth.
It didn’t matter that the Saudi royal family were repressively authoritarian, staunchly anti-democracy and simultaneously profoundly corrupt and conservative, America and Britain were more than happy to do business with them so long as they knew their place and did as they were told.