Editor’s note: Some names and identifying characteristics have been changed for security purposes.

For a leader who has “more money than God,” as USC professor and Middle Eastern scholar Laurie Brand said, Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) foundation-shaking rise to power in 2017 as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has raised eyebrows and questions from the international community regarding his motives and moves for the future.

MBS’ rule has brought significant change to this conservative Gulf country, including a plan for economic diversification (Vision 2030), a corruption “purge” at the highest levels of government, and more rights for women including the right to drive and a relaxing of the male guardianship laws. At the same time, MBS has projected a different face abroad as he wages a war in Yemen with an unprecedented death toll, engages in a dispute with Lebanon, causes a diplomatic crisis with Qatar, enforces a crackdown on Saudi female activists at home, struggles with Canadian diplomats, and allegedly orders the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“It seems that he’s working on different registers,” Brand said. “I mean, there’s the really ugly coercive force that is very much at his disposal which he doesn’t hesitate to use if he thinks he needs to. And then you’ve got these other elements where [he’s] loosening the reins a bit.”

[ Ссылка ]

свернуть