ABSTRACT
In 1932, King Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman Al Saud formally united the Hijaz and Najd to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. More at home with tribal politics, Saud lacked the breadth of vision to propel Saudi Arabia from a desert kingdom to a major oil power. The next decade was a difficult period for the kingdom in terms of meeting the challenges of social change, measuring up to economic and political expectations, and maintaining national security. When the global economic depression and political disorders leading to World War II greatly reduced the number of Hajjis in the 1930s, the Saudi economy was badly hit, and although oil had been discovered, revenues were insufficient to fill the gap. Alliance politics with powerful partners sharing mutual interests has traditionally been the major focus of Saudi foreign security and economic policies. The Saudi political process works on three separate but highly interrelated levels: royal family politics, national politics, and bureaucratic politics.
