MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman
by Ben Hubbard
September 24, 2020 — October 8, 2020
Los Angeles, CA
To begin with, my reaction throughout this entire book was “damn.” I’ve been heavily reading and researching about Saudi Arabia and the Al-Saud rule since 2015 (I even went to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to investigate Saudi FDI in Arab countries for a year-long research paper). So when I saw a book discussing everything about the Crown Prince without limits, I was instantly interested in reading it.
I’ll put it this way, MBS is a monarch, a mobster, and a mastermind, but I’ll leave out my opinion of him. Furthermore, coming from a family with feminists and a long tension with Saudi Arabia because I’m a secular Egyptian nationalist and Gharbi; I’m going to leave out my initial opinions. I’ll discuss the book itself only through whats mentioned by the book. (I highly recommend you read it).
It begins with the simple history of Saudi Arabia as we’ve always known it, then introduces what was an insignificant prince who was never put in line to become anything within the royal family. The most important figure is King Salman, who was both lucky and strategic, under his hand MBS unexpectedly became one of the most powerful figures in the world. I’ve always known that the Saud’s lived lavish lifestyles, but the book surprised me to the extent which I couldn’t even believe. The lavish lifestyles are fueled by the oil money, which is literally their fuel to an absolute power domestically and extreme influence abroad. When their money is no longer in demand, tensions begin to rise. I was impressed by how private companies rejected MBS’s invested after the assassination of a journalist when all the public governments didn’t take a stronger stance.
MBS has two sides of him. The first is the reformer, a super optimistic, imaginative futurist, & ambitious young leader who wants to flip Saudi Arabia completely. The other is a gangster, a deadly figure who’s responsible for creating downfall and chaos (Yemen is just one of the things he’s responsible for). Saudi Arabia is going through an unprecedented transformation with some of the craziest and coolest projects in the world such as NEOM.
However, Vision 2030 is just a vision and while we’ve seen big moves, there’s no promise on delivery. The only aspect that has been delivered so far is several power grabs, breaks in diplomatic ties, broken states, and murder; an unchanged form of Saudi rule. While the reports and plans that have been prepared by McKinsey consultants sound intriguing, it seems like Saudi Arabia won’t change, it will simply evolve.