Reign of King Abdullah (2005–15)

The country underwent a peaceful power transition in 2005, when, following Fahd’s death on August 1, Abdullah ascended the throne. The new king subsequently introduced a program of moderate reform to address a number of challenges facing Saudi Arabia. The country’s continued reliance on oil revenue was of particular concern, and among the economic reforms he introduced were limited deregulation, foreign investment, and privatization. He originally sought to placate extreme Islamist voices—many of which sought to end the Saudi dynasty’s rule—yet the spectre of anti-Saudi and anti-Western violence within the country’s borders led him for the first time to order the use of force by the security services against some extremists. At the same time, in 2005, Abdullah responded to demands for greater political inclusiveness by holding the country’s first municipal elections, based on adult male suffrage.

Uncertainty surrounding succession in the kingdom was a further source of domestic concern, and late the following year Abdullah issued a new law refining the country’s succession policies. Among the changes was the establishment of an Allegiance Commission, a council of Saudi princes meant to participate in the selection of a crown prince—previously the task of the king alone—and to oversee a smooth transition of power.

In February 2009 Abdullah enacted a series of broad governmental changes, which affected areas such as the judiciary, armed forces, and various ministries. Notable among his decisions were the replacement of senior individuals within the judiciary and the religious police with more moderate candidates and the appointment of the country’s first female deputy minister, who was charged with overseeing girls’ education. In September 2011 Abdullah announced that women would be permitted to vote in municipal elections and to run for office beginning with the 2015 elections. He also announced that women would be appointed to serve on the Consultative Council.

Questions about the future succession of the Saudi kingship surfaced again with the death of the crown prince, Sultan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, in October 2011. Days after Sultan’s death, Nayef ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, the interior minister, was named the new crown prince. Nayef died in June 2012 and was succeeded as crown prince by his brother, Salman ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz. Despite the formation of the Allegiance Council in 2006, the mechanisms for determining the line of succession beyond the surviving sons of Ibn Saud, all advanced in age, remained unclear.

Although Saudi Arabia avoided the mass uprisings in 2011 that led to the toppling of entrenched regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, the effects of regional upheaval were felt domestically. In Al-Sharqiyyah (Eastern) province, where the concentration of Shiʿis was highest, there were occasional demonstrations. Those were quickly suppressed by the Saudi authorities, who usually sought to blame the unrest on Iranian plots.

In foreign affairs, Saudi Arabia sought to preserve the regional status quo by using its financial, diplomatic, and military resources to limit the effects of revolutionary uprisings in neighbouring countries. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent a force of 1,500 soldiers to help the Sunni royal family and Sunni-dominated government to quell an uprising led by members of the island’s Shiʿi majority in 2011. Meanwhile in Egypt, Saudi Arabia lent its support to a military coup in 2014 that replaced an elected government led by the Muslim Brotherhood with an administration led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a military officer, and provided the new administration with ample financial support.

Abdullah died on January 23, 2015, and was succeeded by Salman. In his first statements as king, Salman vowed to maintain continuity with the policies of his predecessor.

Reign of King Salman from 2015

Upon his accession to the throne, King Salman was already age 79 and was reported to suffer from chronic health problems, stoking concerns about the stability of the monarchy in the years to come. The throne had passed between sons of Ibn Saud since his death in 1953, and, although this generation was aging, Salman was not the last of them. Worries were heightened further by the fact that Salman himself became crown prince only after two others before him had died. The possibility of crown princes dying in rapid succession as their generation aged raised fears of a potential succession crisis.