Check out these two Saudi princes. This one's the 57 year old crown prince, And this one (the one doing all the hand kissing) is his younger cousin. Listen to what the older cousin is saying: He’s being forced to give up his power and to pass the crown prince title to his younger cousin, a guy who's almost half his age.
This is Mohammed bin Salman. In the West we just call him MBS. And since this moment in June he’s consolidated power so swiftly and so thoroughly that in Saudi Arabia they just know him as As crown prince, MBS will become king And with all of this new power, MBS is seeking to assert his dominance throughout the Middle East One of his big policies has been a vehement opposition to Saudi Arabia's neighbor, Iran.
On that note he's found an ally in the White House. Inside the kingdom, MBS is also seeking to cement his authority and his dominance over the Royal Family. Saudi Arabia's young crown prince arresting hundreds of his own cousins Crackdown on corruption 11 princes and nearly 40 current or former officials detained, reportedly being held at the lavish Ritz Carlton.
(Yes, if you’re a Saudi Prince, "jail" is the Ritz Carlton. ) MBS called this a corruption crackdown and he branded himself as the financially responsible anti corruption leader. But we’re talking about a guy who recently purchased one of the most expensive homes in the world and who last year spent half a billion dollars on a painting.
He clearly had other motives for this crackdown beyond fiscal responsibility. One thing to realize is that the Saudi royal family is made up of thousands of members who use public money generated from oil revenues to fund their unthinkably excessive lifestyles. So it wouldn’t be hard for MBS to crack down on anyone he wants to.
Coming into power, MBS' second big move was to loosen the strict moral and social rules of the kingdom. He stripped the religious police of their right to make arrests. He expanded women’s right in society including giving them the right to drive.
On the surface, these are progressive social reforms meant to modernize Saudi society. But like the anti corruption crackdowns, the move is another effort to seize power. Saudi society is built on a sort of pact between the royal family – just called the house of Saud – and a vast religious establishment, run by conservative Islamic clerics.
The clerics give the Saud family legitimacy, by giving them their blessing as rulers of the kingdom. In exchange, the family allows the clerics to strictly enforce their uncompromising, puritanical version of Islam within the kingdom. This Faustian bargain means that Saudi princes, like MBS and others, can live these indulgent lifestyles and make deals with the West, but still retain religious legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
It’s a balance that has kept the Kingdom stable in this very volatile region. But now, MBS has violated his family’s part of the bargain, arresting hard line clerics who might speak out against his progressive reforms. This could shake one of the foundational pillars of Saudi society.
The third way MBS is shaking up the kingdom is his plans for the economy. The kingdom’s revenue comes almost entirely from oil. Demand for oil has remained solid for decades and Saudi Arabia reaped the rewards of that.
But in 2014, the price of oil started to drop. And it became clear that betting the entire kingdom’s economy on this one resource, was a dangerous strategy for the future. So MBS wants to end what he calls this “Oil Addiction,” in order to prepare for a world after oil.
He’s laid out a vision of privatizing a lot of sectors within the Saudi economy. And breaking up this giant, government-owned oil business. But this reform could also create more instability.
Thanks to the endless oil money, Saudi citizens are entitled to a lifelong set of benefits, like free healthcare and subsidized housing. But as MBS tries to privatize the economy and move away from oil, this subsidized lifestyle that so many Saudis enjoy could be threatened and the public support that has kept this monarchy so solid for so many years could begin to dwindle. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the brink of one of the biggest transformations in its history.
As this young leader consolidates power to upend the status quo, he may also upend the pillars that have kept the kingdom one of the more stable countries in the Middle East.
