Saudi Arabia in transition : insights on social, political, economic and religious change / edited by Bernard Haykel (Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University), Thomas Hegghammer (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment), Steṕhane Lacroix (Sciences Po, Paris).

"Making sense of Saudi Arabia is crucially important today. The kingdom's western province contains the heart of Islam, and it is the United States' closest Arab ally and the largest producer of oil in the world. However, the country is undergoing rapid change: its aged leadership is ceding power to a new generation, and its society, dominated by young people, is restive. Saudi Arabia has long remained closed to foreign scholars, with a select few academics allowed into the kingdom over the past decade. This book presents the fruits of their research as well as those of the most prominent Saudi academics in the field. This volume focuses on different sectors of Saudi society and examines how the changes of the past few decades have affected each. It reflects new insights and provides the most up-to-date research on the country's social, cultural, economic and political dynamics"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction / Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer and Stephane Lacroix -- Part I. Politics -- 2. Rentier exceptionalism : oil and political mobilization in Saudi Arabia / Gregory Gause -- 3. The dogma of development : technopolitics and power in Saudi Arabia / Toby Jones -- 4. Enforcing the state's Islam : the functioning of the committee of senior scholars / Nabil Mouline -- Part II. Oil -- 5. Saudi Arabia and the world oil market / Giacomo Luciani -- 6. The political economy of regional development in post-World War II Saudi Arabia / Steffen Hertog -- 7. Oil in Saudi Arabian culture and politics : from tribal poets to Al-Qaeda's ideologues / Bernard Haykel -- Part III. Islam and Islamism -- 8. From Wahhabi to Salafi / David Commins -- 9. Understanding stability and dissent in the kingdom : the role of the jama'at in Saudi politics / Steṕhane Lacroix -- 10. The struggle for authority : the Shaykhs of Jihadi-Salafism in Saudi Arabia, 1997-2003 / Saud al-Sarhan -- 11. "Classical" and "global" jihadism in Saudi Arabia / Thomas Hegghammer -- Part IV. Social Change -- 12. Raiders and traders : a poet's lament of the end of the Bedouin heroic age / Abd al-Aziz H. Al Fahad -- 13. Rootless trees : genealogical politics in Saudi Arabia / Abd al-Aziz H. Al Fahad -- 14. Caught between religion and state : women in Saudi Arabia / Madawi al-Rasheed -- 15. Engendering Saudi consumerism : a study of young women's practices in Riyadh's shopping malls / Ameĺie Le Renard.