Holidays off to a good start. Finished - "Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power", one of @FT 's 2020 book shortlist. Cocktail of history, palace intrigue, geopolitics and masala for middle east newbies. Some observations (1)

The book has several subplots, each in itself could be a separate book:
1. Mohammed bin Salman's palace shenanigans
2. @twitter's data leak used for espionage purposes
3. Saudi Public Investment Fund's genesis and potential role in the investment world
4. ME politics (2)

The Saudi palace operates medieval era style with hardly any institutions / checks and balances in the country. It has thrived on oil but squandered opportunities to modernize, even relative to its neighbors. (3)

Was shocked to read that Saudi outlawed slavery only in 1962 with pressure from JFK. Amazing that this hardly gets any mention in modern discourse ~ In collective conscience, slavery is white man exploiting africans; Slavery in Islamic world has quietly slipped by (4) #slavery

The complex histories and rivalries of the region dating back to centuries play out in in unimaginable ways e.g. kidnapping of Lebanon PM Saad Hariri and forced resignation by Saudi's. Unfathomable if any other country could get away with this - say India kidnap SL PM ?!!!(4)

The good and great of the world are vying for a piece of the Saudi money to fund their ventures, while the Saudi's want western investment in their country. This game of cat and mouse is well laid out but opens up some interesting questions (5)

Q1: Isn't there enough domestic institutional money in the US to fund infrastructure and other ventures?
Q2: Hasn't QE and low interest rates since 2008 helped cheap western money?
Q3: Philosophically, is 100% "free" movement of capital a good thing? (6)

Saudi has been able to bully its neighbors with the explicit backing of the US establishment. Many Saudi palace observers refer to relationship with US as "transactional". What value does Saudi bring into the 21st century knowledge / information age is left unanswered ? (7)

One amusing quote from the book attributed to Rex Tillerson " The idea that Saudi Arabia would use American tanks, American fighter planes, and American missiles against Qatar, and vice versa, was unacceptable"
Pray - if you sell weapons to both parties, why feign outrage ? (8)

Readers from India would be able to relate to this quote - " It seems in those societies many make money by peddling connections, versus building things or applying intellectual rigor"
Story of the license raj and babudom (9)

It also appears @AJEnglish has not only pissed off many in the west and east, but also the Saudi's and ongoing efforts to shut it down. Interesting to observe if al-jazeera tones its views on Saudis going forward. (10)

The gory murder of Jamal Khashoggi is dealt with in detail again highlighting that the Saudi's might have taken two steps forward with their reforms, but a step backward with complete concertation of power with Mohammed bin Salman. Monarchy devolving into dictatorship ? (11)

My only quibble with the book is it's 50 pages longer than it could have been but that doesn't take anything away from the quality. A shout out to @ScheckWSJ and @bradleyhope for this fine piece of work.
#SaudiArabia #bloodandoil #mbs #BookReview (End)

@TheEmissaryCo Recall your wonderful piece on middle east. Will be interesting to get your views on this thread