Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia

This author describes an interesting history of Saudi Arabia and its relations with the U.S. The book traces the Saudi-American alliance from its emergence after the birth of the Kingdom in 1932 and the signing a year later of the first oil-prospecting agreement with Standard Oil of California up until the present time, ending with a discussion of the strategic ties that bind the United States and Saudi Arabia. In particular, it describes the experience of many Americans who have worked in the Kingdom, giving particularly unique insight for instance into what it was like for many to work for Aramco, to be a wife of an Aramco worker, to be married to a Saudi male, or be involved in one of many other possible relations involving folks from the US and Saudi Arabia. Thomas W. Lippman is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. In four years as the Washington Post's Middle East bureau chief, three years as the Post's oil and energy reporter and a decade as the newspaper's national security and diplomatic correspondent, he has traveled extensively to Saudi Arabia. In all, he has spent more than thirty years as a reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and American foreign policy. He is known for and described as writing in a very even-handed manner. Unlike most other books I have read, the author remains respectful towards the Saudi people. One of many messages that I got from his book is that some Americans have not been able to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia while others have done amazingly well at settling into the unique and very different culture. Americans who have been able to adjust to life in the Kingdom showed a great willingness to bend to Saudi's cultural norms and a willingness to reach out (and frequently live) outside of the compounds and/or otherwise seek opportunities to actually connect with Saudis. For instance, he talks of the Nance Museum in Missouri, perhaps the only museum dedicated to traditional Saudi Arabian art and crafts in the U.S., developed by a former Aramco couple (the Nances) who simply fell in love with the native traditions. Although Lippman acknowledges that there are a lot of problems in Saudi Arabia which they must face and resolve, he generally shows the Saudis in a very positive light. He has travelled to Saudi Arabia a number of times since September 11 and his last chapter discusses changes in Saudi culture since this terror attack. In the paperback version he has added an additional chapter. Lippman is a very responsible writer, taking seriously the affect he knows his words can have upon the reader. His love for the US is clear. However, he is not arrogant about his nationality. He also shows sympathy and agreement with many of the complaints registered by Arabs, while not being an apologetic. He is among the most diplomatic of all authors on Saudi Arabia and he concludes his book with at least the possibility fo

Thomas Lippman has provided a prescient discussion of the long and interconnected relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. This relationship has been among the forefront of the problems U.S. policymakers have been reexamining since 9/11, and is among one of the most complicated of the U.S.'s bilateral relationships today. At the turn of the 20th century the area that is now Saudi Arabia was then a disparate mixture of clans soon to be united by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. The lifestyles of the inhabitants of the land were not much different than their ancestors from millennia before. Within a few years a relationship would be started that would change the world. The first American geologists came to Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s. These geologists first found oil in 1933 and found the first large and profitable oil fields in 1938. From the time of that first large discovery of oil on, the U.S. and Saudi would a close mutual relationship. The Arab American Oil Company, or Aramco, was set up to extract the new oil finds. In exchange, the Americans were charged with creating a modern, industrial society in the Kingdom. For the next 60 years, American government officials, private contractors, and the U.S. military would undertake projects that would lead to such things as a modern infrastructure for moving oil out of the ground and the country (Aramco, Bechtel), would establish the Saudi national airline (TWA), create a modern civil service (the Ford Foundation). In addition, U.S. government officials helped establish a paper currency and a central bank. In addition, since 1951, U.S. policy has been to recognize the protection of Saudi Arabia from outside threats as a vital national interest. This policy meant supplying military equipment and training for five decades and condoning harsh treatment of Saudi dissidents or those who long for many of the freedoms Americans hold dear, such as freedom of religion and speech. U.S. Middle East policy, including the invasion of Iraq, the inability of the Saudi leadership to create the conditions for its newly educated young people to find jobs, and other issues are all swirling to create conditions inimical to the continuation of this marriage of convenience. While Lippman is unable to provide answers or speculation about the future, he has provided a valuable service by giving a remarkably balanced telling the story of the long, complicated relationship.

Thomas Lippman has accomplished a brave thing. In his book, he takes a look at a difficult relationship without succumbing to the post-9/11 quest for demons. Unlike Baer, who never worked in Saudi Arabia, or Schwartz, who has never even been to Saudi Arabia, Lippman bases his book on first-hand experience with the country and people who have lived there for extended periods. He also takes the time to talk with Saudis, an almost unheard of tact in this day of instant experts. The early parts of the book are excellent. His rendition of the history and slowly-built alliances between America and Saudi Arabia are both factually and contextually correct. He might spend a little too much time on the "Cleaver family" nature of ARAMCO housing, but the effect it had on the Saudis working for and with ARAMCO is accurately captured. In some ways, this book might have been better had its publication been delayed for a while. More information, rather than allegation, has come out about Saudi cooperation in the war against terror. For instance, contra the Washington Post review, Saudi Arabia did, in fact, begin anti-terror efforts immediately following 9/11, though the efforts were more highly charged after the 5/12 bombings in Riyadh. Too, Saudi efforts against terrorists in the midst continue today.

A well researched and well documented book by a veteran expert. Lippman has been studying and writing about the Middle East for a long time. Inside the Mirage benefits from his extensive travels and interviews. It is an eye opening, people oriented account. Read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia to get an overview. Read this one to delve deeper.

Lippman presents readers a unique, detailed, highly readable and timely look at Saudi Arabia. This book is a needed starting point or supplement for readers striving the understand the role of traditional society, petroleum, development and politics on the Saudi-US relationship.This is the new and indispensible tome for the library of any serious scholar of Saudi relations with the United States.