BOOK REVIEW: The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed Bin Salman and The Transformation of Saudi Arabia
By Karen Elliott House / Harper
Reviewed by: Joe Zacks
The Reviewer — Joe Zacks is the Deputy Assistant Director of the CIA for Counterterrorism. He has previously served as the Agency’s Chief Learning Officer and the CIA’s Chief of Operations for Counterterrorism. He has served a number of times as a Chief of Station to include one of CIA’s flagship station’s in South Asia. Prior to joining the CIA, Joe served a full career of over 21 years as an officer in the U.S. Army.
REVIEW — There is a school of thought that Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, was part of Iran’s strategic design to thwart Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) from entering into a peace treaty with Israel. Whether there is merit to this argument, the reality is that the Middle East has changed dramatically since the attack. Gaza has been turned into a wasteland without Hamas being dismantled, Hizballah has been largely neutered, the Houthis have been attacked by both the U.S. and Israel without decisive effect, and Iran’s nuclear program has been significantly derailed. Before Israel attacked Hizballah at scale, it engaged in a war of attrition in its north, and additionally for the first time had to contend with Iranian missile barrages.
Throughout this period MBS skillfully managed Saudi Arabia’s position in the heart of this chaos; he ensured that the kingdom was not subject to Iranian attacks while facilitating, in part, Israel’s response to Iran’s attack. Without doubt, he has solidified his position as a regional statesman. The publication of Karen House’s The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia, which was released less than a month after the start of Israel’s twelve-day war against Iran, could not be more timely. Given her extensive knowledge of Saudi Arabia from years of reporting for the Wall Street Journal, her 2013 book On Saudi Arabia, and her incredible access to sources from MBS to average Saudis, her book clearly ranks amongst the best biographies of this contemporary Saudi leader.
House has written an outstanding biography of an imperfect transformative leader. In addition, she provides a concise, astute assessment of Saudi Arabia’s economy and society and history of the ruling Al Saud dynasty with its complicated relationship with the country’s conservative religious establishment. This biography is a portrait of a bold and complex transformative leader whom House compares to Augustus Caesar (Octavian), Peter the Great, and Napoleon. Drawing on first-hand sources, she succinctly recounts the generally well-known story of MBS’s ambitious rise to power when he methodically ingratiated himself to his father, King Salman, in a manner that culminated in his replacing Mohammed Bin Nayf as Crown Prince in June 2017.
House portrays MBS as a man with a vision and in a hurry. He clearly recognizes that his popularity is with Saudi Arabia’s youth, who constitute 70% of the population and are restless for societal and economic reform. MBS is keenly aware that Saudi Arabia can no longer rely on its oil resources to carry its economy in perpetuity and develops his Vision 2030, in which he plans to build an economy based on tourism, high tech, and clean energy. In his view, this expensive plan and long-term gamble will provide much needed skills and jobs for Saudi Arabia’s youthful population. House illustrates how MBS is transforming a religiously conservative and staid society into one where it is permissible to have fun by visiting Saudi theme parks, going to movies, and attending sporting and music events. Allowing women to drive is now accepted. A large portion of Saudi Arabia’s youth embraced these reforms and increased MBS’s popularity. House explains both the pact that previously existed between Saudi Arabia’s rulers and Wahhabism and how MBS has dismantled much of the power of these religious zealots—most evidenced by his diminishing the power of the religious police or mutawa.
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House provides a succinct account of MBS’s ruthlessness in managing and manipulating the large and often divided royal family. Shortly after becoming the crown prince, MBS orchestrated the imprisonment of Saudi royals and other rivals in the kingdom’s Ritz Carlton to clamp down on rampant corruption within the kingdom, eliminate political opposition amongst the royals, and consolidate his hold on power. MBS was clearly signaling that there was a new sheriff in town. MBS allowed for no political opposition and paid scant attention to human rights. MBS supports the societal and economic reforms and freedoms that he dictates, but political freedom is not part of the equation, and he does not tolerate dissent. In illustrating MBS’s predilection for heavy handedness, House highlights his cruelty in such events as the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and MBS critic.
In addition, House cleverly portrays MBS’s geopolitical strategy. She emphasizes that MBS wants the U.S. as Saudi Arabia’s primary security guarantor and desires to be in the U.S. fold. In addition, she skillfully depicts MBS’s frustration with the U.S.’s on-again, off-again relationship with the kingdom that was most recently evident during the Biden administration. House highlights MBS’s relations with China and Russia as both a hedge against U.S. policy fickleness and as a demonstration that Saudi Arabia has other options. Furthermore, she relates Saudi Arabia’s historical enmity with Iran and MBS’s efforts to deftly manage this source of instability for both the kingdom and the region.
House lays out the complexities facing MBS’s vision for the kingdom’s future relationship with Israel. Part of MBS’s grand vision is to build a commercial bridge between Asia and Europe, and Israel is a pivotal part of that plan. According to House, signing a Congressionally ratified security treaty with the U.S. will necessitate Saudi Arabia’s normalization of relations with Israel. This is unlikely to happen given the situation in Gaza and lack of progress on the creation of a Palestinian state. While House suggests that MBS is not overly troubled by the plight of the Palestinians and is fed up with the corruption and poor governance of the Palestinian Authority, he is keenly aware of how opposed Saudi youth are to the ongoing Israeli campaign in Gaza. Since MBS’s political base and power in many way rests on the support of Saudi Arabia’s youth, he is careful not to alienate this population by relenting on the country’s demand for Israel to, at minimum, accept a two-state solution before Israel and the kingdom normalize relations.
The curious thing about this well-crafted book is its title. Given House’s portrayal of MBS as a confident, ambitious, energetic, politically astute, ruthless, and transformative leader, one could have presumed the book could have been called The Man Who Will Be King, but the title suggests a hesitancy in such an assertion. House does not explain this directly and, in fact, she offers an all but certain path for MBS to ascend to the throne. With MBS’s bold gamble on shaking up and modernizing the kingdom and the Middle East being what it is, perhaps a little hedge in the title is exactly right.
Editor’s note:
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