Saudi Arabia, with its huge oil assets and religious-ideological influence is arguably the most strategic Sunni Arab country. Despite having an increasing yet still modest population, it is undeniable that the Kingdom has the financial and ideological potential to exert an influence well beyond its borders. Especially in the wake of a generational transition in the power structure, Saudi Arabia's political future is of major inter-national concern. In Saudi Arabia in Transition, Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer, and Stéphane Lacroix have put together a timely volume that offers significant insight into the dynamics of political, economic, and socio-cultural transformation. A common theme shared by all its contributors is that Saudi Arabia is not an exceptional case culturally, politically, or economically, and is instead, similar to other developing countries that experience similar challenges, crises, and societal transformation.

In their introduction, the editors note that four major challenges face Saudi Arabia: achieving a smooth transition in monarchy from King Faisal's sons to his grandsons; creating millions of new jobs for the youth, who not only are increasing in numbers, but also increasingly more educated; channeling the aspirations of the new Saudi society into peaceful political participation through transparent and accountable institutions; and finally, managing the prospects of a resurgent Iran and a region in turmoil which create significant domestic repercussions.

Saudi response to these challenges have been in the form of postponing domestic political transformation, reacting to the transformation elsewhere in the region, and reliance on its financial power to quell societal aspirations for change. Yet as Gause demonstrates (chap. 2), contrary to predictions offered by the rentier state model, increased oil wealth has not translated into reduced political mobilization in Saudi Arabia. Jones highlights changes in Saudi society, with new educational institutions helping to create a highly educated and technocratic rather than traditional society (chap. 3). He also explores some of the tensions between conservative and modernist forces. In fact, Saudi technocratic developmentalism and Wahhabi interpretation of Islam may share a strong dislike of tradition. Yet the crucial question is to balance economic modernization with appropriate political institutionalization that would channel aspirations and demands of an increasingly urban, wealthy, and educated society. As Mouline elaborates (chap. 4), the power of bureaucratized conservative ulama was utilized by the state not only to control, but to also use religion as a legitimizing tool.

The section on oil includes interesting chapters that discuss the socio-economic impact of oil. Challenging conventional wisdom, Luciani states that Saudi Arabia does not and cannot effectively influence inter-national oil prices despite its enormous role in world oil trade (chap. 5). Hertog touches upon the important and interesting topic of Saudi regional imbalance in terms of development and integration into central bureaucracy (chap. 6). He explains the regional differences in development through the relative coherence of regional identity and organizational capacity of regional elites, rather than the cultural affinity of regions with the center. Yet due to insufficient data, he does not tackle other societal cleavages such as the relative deprivation of the Shiite population in the Eastern Province. In another very interesting contribution, Haykel demonstrates how oil wealth has been utilized in Saudi culture and political discourse, especially focusing on al Qaeda's propaganda (chap. 7). The sections on Islam and Islamism and Social Change are probably the most interesting as far as the sensitive relationship between religion and politics is concerned. Contributors explore the tensions between the religious establishment and a rapidly transforming Saudi society, as well as the tensions between radical and liberal ideological currents. Commins explores the political motives behind the naming of the Saudi official doctrine originally preached by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab as Wahhabi or Salafi (chap. 8). Lacroix challenges the assumption that the public sphere is devoid of religious movement plurality, by presenting a discussion of the role of social Islamic networks (jaʿmaat) in shaping Saudi political and social discourse (chap. 9). Al-Rasheed argues that the exclusion of women from the public sphere reflects political rather than religious motivations (chap. 14).

In sum, the book deals with the domestic socio-political and economic transformation that Saudi Arabia experiences. It treats Saudi Arabia as a normal case, which experiences inevitable socio-political tensions of a developing state. It offers a new research agenda by challenging assumptions made by conventional rentier state and modernization theories. The inclusion of a section on foreign policy challenges that face Saudi Arabia would make it a comprehensive handbook on the Kingdom for academics and policy makers.