D ELI GHT S| BOOKS
A trio of top players: MBS, Pelosi and Trump
Christina Spencer
MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman Ben Hubbard Tim Duggan Books, Random House, 2020 384 pages Hardcover: $36.63 Kindle: $17
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Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, was never supposed to become the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, yet today, he is its de facto ruler, whose character seems to be made up of equal parts genuine desire to modernize and ruthless authoritarianism.
moves that few thought possible.” By sheer chance — a series of deaths over time of key figures inside the royal family, MBS’s father, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, became king in 2015. The young MBS had been close to him, and King Salman granted him important portfolios, including defence and the chairmanship of the massive oil company, Saudi Aramco. The crown prince, though, was his uncle, Mohammed bin Nayef.
Early in 2016, the kingdom announced a crackdown on corruption, including 47 executions. Then came an announcement that Aramco would be modernized through a share offer. MBS, already consolidating power, had begun to weave a narrative about a modern Saudi Arabia based on transparency and ending corruption. He had some of the world’s most prestigious business experts create a reform document called Vision 2030. FALL 2020 | OCT-NOV-DEC
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
t one point in early adulthood, Mohammed bin Salman, now the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, coveted land from a man who would not sell it, so he demanded that the cleric in charge of the land registry simply sign the property over to him. When the cleric refused this illegal transaction, the young prince “sent him an envelope with a bullet in it,” writes author Ben Hubbard. It was an early example of what was to come as the young Saudi began climbing the family ladder toward ultimate power. MBS, as he is often called, was never supposed to become the crown prince. Yet today he is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, a powerful and divisive figure whose character seems made up of equal parts genuine desire to modernize and ruthless authoritarianism. Because he was dozens of rungs down the ladder of succession (the sixth son of the 25th son of the king who founded Saudi Arabia, to be exact), little is known about the young MBS. Unlike his many relatives in the constantly proliferating House of Saud, “he never ran a company that made a mark. He never acquired military experience. He never studied at a foreign university. He never mastered, or even became functional, in a foreign language,” Hubbard writes. But in a conservative kingdom, he was an early adopter of modern technology and social media. And, says Hubbard, “his deep understanding of the kingdom and its society would enable him to successfully execute
