Middle East Review of International Affairs

Volume 9, Number 3, September 2005

 

Terrorist Challenges to Saudi Arabian Internal Security
by Joshua Teitelbaum ^*

 

Abstract

Saudi Arabia has faced a full-fledged Islamic insurgency since May 2003. In combating this insurgency, the kingdom is hampered by the lack of loyal security forces, which seem to be penetrated by al-Qa'ida. In the beginning the regime tried the old methods of co-optation, including a generous amnesty to bring in the insurgents. However, it has recently discovered that it must go on a determined offensive, and it is this strategy that has brought several recent successes. Crushing this insurgency is Riyadh's top priority, and it should be Washington's as well — far ahead of reform or democracy.

This article was originally written for a project and conference on "After the Iraq War: Strategic and Political Changes in Europe and the Middle East," co-sponsored by the GLORIA Center and The Military Centre for Strategic Studies (CeMiSS) of Italy.

Full Text (PDF, 11 pages, 58.9 KB)

Note *: Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum is Senior Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. He is the author of The Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia, and Holier Than Thou: Saudi Arabia's Islamic Opposition