Saudi Arabia is going through one of the most difficult periods in its modern history. Oil prices have dropped from a July 2014 high of $115 per barrel to less than $30 per barrel in January this year. The country is surrounded by failed states: Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria and, arguably, Lebanon. It has a demographic bulge of ambitious, but exceedingly frustrated, young men and women whose expectations differ dramatically from those of their parents. And it faces an emboldened Iran eager to interfere in the affairs of Arab countries, and with the financial wherewithal to do so, via proxy armed militia. Any one of these challenges would be hard enough to tackle on its own. Saudi Arabia is having to deal with all of them at once.
Since the Third Saudi State was founded by King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud in 1932, it has largely been risk averse, cautious and non-confrontational. The same cannot be said about today’s Saudi Arabia, however. Shortly after the death of King Abdullah in January 2015, King Salman embarked on a comprehensive reshuffle of the government. With an energetic and ambitious young prince, Mohammed bin Salman, playing a leading role, the kingdom is asserting its regional power as it engages militarily on two fronts: combating the militants of Isis inside and outside its borders on the one hand, and fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on the other.