Saudi Arabia: A warning flare goes up

The new issue of West Point’s Counterterrorism Sentinel carries an interesting analysis of Saudi Arabia in the context of the Arab spring by Toby Craig Jones of Rutgers University. He concludes with this warning:

Saudi Arabia’s rulers have demonstrated that they feel a sense of urgency, but their political instincts are taking them in the wrong direction. The reformers are right that the existing system is deeply dysfunctional, anachronistic, and no longer in touch with the interests and desires of the vast majority of Saudi citizens. It is hard to see how resorting to a well-worn political strategy will restore confidence in an ailing system or ensure that there will not be future and perhaps more confrontational challenges to regime power. The kingdom’s leaders have yet to learn the most important lesson coming from Cairo, Tunis, Sana`a and Manama: although Arab authoritarian regimes have proven durable in the past, they are no longer invulnerable to the demands and pressures of their own people.