Customer Reviews

National Security in Saudi Arabia: Threats, Responses, and Challenges (Praeger Security International)

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This book, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is the current benchmark for analysis of Saudi Arabia's national security issues.

Cordesman and Obaid look at both the external and internal threats to Saudi Arabia, including social and economic issues. The varying military threats from Yemen, Iraq, and Iran are explored in great detail, even down to the number of tanks, artillery, helicopters, and mine-laying ships. The clear conclusion is that for the near and intermediate future, Saudi Arabia needs to keep an eye on Iran and its possible nuclear proliferation threat.

Assaying the domestic threats, the book gives a good overview of Saudi history, its current efforts to combat terror activities, the economic problems looming due to explosive population growth, the challenges confronting the country as it faces modernization and reform, and the economic and security issues surrounding its all-important petroleum industry. All are handled competently, thoroughly, and clearly.

The only downside of this book is the lack of a final copyediting. Punctuation errors abound, particularly in the first half of the book. There are simple--but serious--errors when the name of one country is mistaken for another, though context makes it clear that an error has been committed. It seems obvious, too, that this is a joint effort as one paragraph will be essentially similar to the one following it, varying only in a subordinate clause. One last run through a copyeditor would have fixed these and made reading it far easier.

Even though the book was published just two months ago, it is already out of date in several ways. King Fahd has been succeeded by King Abdullah; there has been a governmental reorganization that changes the power structure within the security services; there has been more activity on the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic front. As it stands, though, this is the best available book on Saudi Arabia's national security.

Highly recommended.