ABSTRACT
The chapter of this book by Eduard Soler and Luciano Zaccara lays out, with admirable clarity, use of sources and analytic control, the historical formation, development and contemporary character of the Saudi state. While recognizing the degree to which Saudi Arabia has changed, and is changing, as a result of internal pressures and altered international and regional context alike, they also stress the coercive and distributive state capacity, and overall elite coherence, of this state. It is improbable that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will fragment, or its state be overthrown, in the foreseeable future.
