Book Note

National Security in Saudi Arabia:
Threats, Responses and Challenges
by Anthony Cordesman and Nawaf Obaid

Editor's Note:

We are pleased to bring to your attention new books dealing with US-Saudi relations and developments in the region. Today we present information about "National Security in Saudi Arabia: Threats, Responses and Challenges," by Anthony H. Cordesman and Nawaf Obaid.

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CSIS Press Release

With continuing instability in Iraq, the threat of a nuclear Iran, and the everpresent reality of further terrorist attacks within its own borders, Saudi Arabia has been forced to make some hard decisions with regard to the structure of its security apparatus, as well as dealing with economic and demographic threats.

What has been accomplished since 9/11, and what are the real prospects and implications for further reform? Cordesman and Obaid describe in detail the current developments in the threats to Saudi Arabia, its options for regional security, the developments in its conventional forces, and its steadily improving internal security capabilities.

They analyze Saudi security spending, arms imports, and the readiness and capabilities of each military service, including the services? relative war-fighting capability. The authors argue that Saudi security requires further efforts to create effective Saudi forces for both defense and counterterrorism.

At the same time, they suggest that Saudi Arabia has embarked on a process of political, economic, and social reform that reflects a growing understanding by members of the royal family, technocrats, and businessmen that Saudi Arabia must reform and diversify its economy and create vast numbers of new jobs for its growing population.

Further progress is required here as well, and economic reform must be combined with political and social reform if the Kingdom is to remain stable in the face of change.

Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS and is a national security analyst for ABC News. Nawaf Obaid is a Saudi national security and intelligence consultant based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and an adjunct fellow at CSIS.

Praeger/CSIS 472 pp. September 2005

ISBN 0-275-98811-2 6? x 9? $54.95 (hb)

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National Security in Saudi Arabia: Threats, Responses and Challenges
by Anthony Cordesman and Nawaf Obaid

Contents

Introduction:

1.    The New Balance of Threats in the Gulf Region
2.    Asymmetric Threats and Islamist Extremists
3.    External Strategic Pressures
4.    The Saudi Security Apparatus
5.    Saudi Military Forces
6.    The Saudi Paramilitary and Internal Security Apparatus
7.    Saudi Energy Security
8.    Military Reform
9.    Internal Security Reform
10.  The Broader Priorities for Security Reform

Notes:

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