Blood & Oil: Ruthless Quest for Power by Mohammed Bin Salman

 Blood & Oil by Bradley Hope

Read: September 2021

This book published in 2020 and tracing the arc of rise of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman (or MBS), reads like a fast paced thriller. The book essentially covers the 20 years of the life of prince till 2020, his evolution as the risk taker, liberalizer, and the autocrat.

MBS was born as one of the numerous grandsons of the founder of Saudi Arabia and son of one of the powerful princes. For the first 15 years or so of his life, he did not show any visible signs of what he was to become later. His older half-brothers were much more accomplished than him- one being an academic, another the country's first astronaut, yet another a fighter pilot, and another world energy specialist and so on. But MBS had one good fortune to his side- affection of his father who doted on him. And as the luck would have it, father of MBS ended up being the King when few of the others in the line to the throne died of old age or illness. And then the meteoric rise of MBS begins. He wants to move fast and break things.

The context of geopolitical importance of Saudi Arabia, its vast oil riches, the ruling family's indebtedness to the radical islamists form an important context to this multi-layered tale. According to the author, MBS has only one rule which he abides by: that is the continuation of absolute rule by Al Saud family. This idea may have been seared into his mind by the uprising in various countries of the region in 2011 known as Arab Spring. MBS then systematically goes after the reasons why his family rule can be curtailed in the future. According to him, the burgeoning young restless population of Arabia, who are information savvy are a threat to long term stability of his family rule. To co-opt them, he starts a trickle of top-down societal liberalization of his country like allowing mixing of sexes, or allowing female drivers, entertainment options et al. But he also makes clear, very brutally, that these reforms flow from him and can't be demanded through protests or otherwise.

At the same time, he goes after innumerable princes of his family, who in his view are greedy, corrupt, lazy, good for nothing, and are a threat to the continuation of his family's long term hold on power. He jails and tortures many of them, something unthinkable earlier. Many of those at the end of his ire, were powerful figures when their fathers were Kings earlier. Ruthlessness, and clinical efficiency of MBS is only matched by his unbound desire to consolidate power in a system which had laboriously designed a power sharing mechanism between the various factions of the family. He has effectively demolished that structure by taking hold of the army, the oil, the domestic security apparatus, the interior ministry, etc, all of which were earlier headed by different brothers.

He then focuses on reimagining the economy of the country. He decides that oil is not the future and then goes on to sell a portion of the national oil company through a much publicized and controversial IPO process. He also invests billions of dollars across the world in new tech companies in order to diversify the sources of income and also to position the country at the beachhead of emerging opportunities of the century. In the process, he attracts the eyeballs of the world which is transfixed by this new age prince throwing money like confetti on his pet themes. Business barons, eager world leaders, and jet set class make a beeline to the once sleepy conservative country.

Then comes the seamier side of his personality, that of an autocrat. He jails, threatens, and crushes dissent with abandon. The most famous of the episodes is brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a sometimes dissenting journalist, in Saudi embassy of Turkey. But he has also ordered execution of many Shia minorities, jailed female protestors and so on. One of his earlier decisions as defense minister to attack Yemen is still roiling the region. Later on, his decision to corner the feisty but rich little Qatar created tensions of his own. His battle of wits with Iran in a long struggle of supremacy in the region is still in its early years. Between all this drama, the long time benefactor, and protector of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, the United States, seems to be withdrawing from the region. The superpower's changing politics with every election cycle also puts a dash of color to this already somewhat bizarre story.

After breathless chapters, you realize that the hyperactive prince is only in his 30s, is still not the king, where typically monarchs take office in their 80s and die in their 90s. Then you realize the importance of MBS and the story yet to unfold.