The book aims to quantify and analyze how two water scarce but ideologically different Middle Eastern political economies, Saudi Arabia and Syria, addressed water sector investment between 1980 and 2000. The study examines how narrow-coalitions of decision-makers obsessed by impossible-to-achieve food self-sufficiency goals, lacking environmental consideration and safe political processes contributed to massively waste scarce resources and unsustainable water policies. The book shows that of Saudi Arabia's US$1,034 billion in oil revenues (1974-2001), 48% was spent on security, plus 10% on the ruling family. Nominal Per capita income dropped by 42% (1981-2000). Syria's per capita income dropped (1985-2000) by 17%, to US$1,200. Armaments' consumed (1970-1990) 13% of GDP. Agricultural investment was wasteful. Saudis produced wheat at five times the international price, depleted 300 billion m3 of mainly non-renewable groundwater and degraded aquifers' quality. 53% of Saudis have no municipal water connections. Syria's Government return on agricultural investment in 2000 was estimated at US$150 million loss. Aquifers' quality was degraded, leaving most urban households enduring acute water shortages.

Experiments in Achieving Water and Food Self-Sufficiency in the Middle East: The Consequences of Contrasting Endowments, Ideologies, and Investment Policies in Saudi Arabia and Syria

Business & Money

Elhadj, Elie

Economics

Dissertation.Com.

Oil and God is an unabashed realpolitik analysis of U.S. oil geopolitics and Saudi Arabia's symbiotic attachment to Wahhabism. Oil and God contends that oil hegemony is world hegemony. The U.S. has protected the al-Sauds since 1945. Some 35,000 U.S. soldiers are in regional air and naval bases to protect the oil fields and ruling sheikhs. In Washington's hands, Saudi oil is a non-lethal WMD. Not even the 9/11 atrocities could make Washington punish Riyadh. Oil and God investigates why Iraq was destroyed, why Iran was allowed to dominate Baghdad, and why Shi'ite/Sunni wars continue to burn. Once oil is replaced by green energy, Washington will abandon Riyadh, Saudi cash will dwindle, and Wahhabi terror will diminish.

Oil and God: Sustainable Energy Will Defeat Wahhabi Terror

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Universal-Publishers

<p>America's War on Terrorism uses democratization of the Arab World as a main weapon. The Islamic Shield argues that democratization of Arab countries is a fantasy because democratic elections today would lead to replacing the dictatorships of Arab rulers by Islamist theocratic dictatorships. The book contends that the Arab peoples are generally characterized by a culture of obedience to hierarchical authority in the home, school, mosque, the work place, and the country at large. The book identifies religious and cultural causes, as well as domestic and foreign political factors that set off Jihadists' terrorism. The book recommends solutions, stressing that political expediencies will not end terrorism. The Islamic Shield examines why two different countries; Saudi Arabia, an Islamist monarchy; and Syria, a quasi-secular republic, share in common non-representative non-participatory dictatorships mired in cronyism and corruption. The examination concludes that genuine reforms are not likely soon. The two countries can be prototypes of other Arab countries. The Islamic Shield considers: why do non-Arab Islamic countries elect women as prime ministers while Arab rulers and Ulama (Muslim clergy) condemn democracy as un-Islamic and treat women as lesser beings? Should benevolent dictatorship replace Arab democracy as an objective? Who shapes the Islamic persona? Is Islamic Law changeable? If yes, who may change it? How likely that an Arab Martin Luther, or Kemal Ataturk might emerge? What might be causing the growing attachment of Arabs today to radical Islam? Did politicizing Genesis 15:18 politicize the Quran? How sustainable is a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? What might the effect of a Shii crescent of influence be on stirring bloody conflicts between Shiis and Sunnis? What might the legacy of the George W. Bush Administration be in the Muslim world? What might be the outcome of the War on Terrorism?</p>

The Islamic Shield: Arab Resistance to Democratic and Religious Reforms

Brown Walker Press

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