ABSTRACT
Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was made the first Foreign Minister, and except for one brief period in the early 1960s when he retired to private life, he retained that portfolio until his death in 1975. During the almost two-thirds of a century in which King Faisal was involved in foreign affairs, both world and regional politics changed their complexion many times. Nazi Germany came and went and the Americans and Russians, minor actors in the Middle East during much of Faisal's early years, emerged as the two superpowers. The architect of the world view which still predominates in Saudi Arabia's foreign policy decision-making was the late King Faisal. In attempting to gain an understanding of King Faisal's world view, one must begin with Islam. The influence of Islam on Faisal's world view, therefore, can be said to have been as much anthropological as theological.
