| ID | 121454 |
| Title Proper | Tribes, coups and princes |
| Other Title Information | building a modern army in Saudi Arabia |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Cronin, Stephanie |
| Publication | 2013. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In the decades following the First World War, countries such as Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan used the creation of a modern army as an engine for wider processes of change. Such military-led state-building followed a precedent established in the previous century by Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. In these countries, military revolutions involving the introduction of new technologies and military tactics made essential broader transformations in tax, administrative and educational structures to finance the army and provide literate manpower. In Saudi Arabia, however, no such military revolution, dragging society in its wake, took place. Military expansion was funded not by domestic taxation but by oil royalties provided by a foreign concession, recruitment remained voluntary, avoiding the administrative centralization and bureaucratic rationality demanded by conscription, while both the integrative function of conscription and the emergence of a professional officer corps were sacrificed to the imperative of sustaining the tribal and family ascendancy of the al-Saud. Saudi Arabia entered the twenty-first century having experienced not military modernization but rather military modernization in reverse, the strength of tribal and family ties and patronage not weakened but rather embedded ever more deeply within a system of patrimonial rule. |
| `In' analytical Note | Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 49, No.1; Jan 2013: p.2-28 |
| Journal Source | Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 49, No.1; Jan 2013: p.2-28 |
| Key Words | Modern Army ; Saudi Arabia ; Tribes ; Coups ; World War I ; Military Tactics |