Article
Amr Hamzawy, Kathryn Selfe
REQUIRED IMAGE
The Saudi Labyrinth: Evaluating the Current Political Opening
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented political dynamism in Saudi Arabia. Two factors—international and domestic reform demands—have injected new elements of dynamism and openness into Saudi Arabia’s political reality. They have also generated sufficient incentives for the government to embark on the road of reform.
By Amr Hamzawy
Published on Mar 27, 2006
Source: Carnegie Endowment
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented political dynamism in Saudi Arabia. Since 2002, the government has pursued various reform policies. Its most relevant measures have included reforming the Shura Council, holding municipal elections, legalizing civil society actors, implementing educational reform plans, and institutionalizing national dialogue conferences. Two factors—international and domestic reform demands—have injected new elements of dynamism and openness into Saudi Arabia’s political reality. They have also generated sufficient incentives for the government to embark on the road of reform.
In a new Carnegie Paper, The Saudi Labyrinth: Evaluating the Current Political Opening, Carnegie Senior Associate Amr Hamzawy discusses the political actors in Saudi Arabia's political scene, recent reform measures, potential for further reform and the role of the United States. Hamzawy argues that although the reforms may seem small to the United States, they are integral steps toward liberalization.
Click on link above for the full text of this Carnegie Paper.
Amr Hamzawy is a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment and a noted Egyptian political scientist.
About the Author
Amr Hamzawy
Director, Middle East Program
Amr Hamzawy is a senior fellow and the director of the Carnegie Middle East Program. His research and writings focus on Egypt’s and other middle powers’ involvement in regional security in the Middle East, particularly through collective diplomacy and multilateral conflict resolution
- In the Middle East and North Africa, America and China Converge More Than They Diverge
- The Iran War Shows the Limits of U.S. PowerArticle
Amr Hamzawy
Recent Work
Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie India
- Threading the Needle: India’s Path Forward with ChinaPaper
After the chill in ties between 2020 and 2024 that brought India–China relations to their lowest point in several decades, the two countries have engaged each other afresh. This paper argues that there are predominantly four imperatives guiding India’s approach to China, and they exist in an order of priority.
Saheb Singh Chadha
- Managing Divergence: India’s BRICS Presidency in 2026Article
This piece argues that India’s central challenge is not managing a single flashpoint but resolving the underlying tension between expansion and institutional coherency of the BRICS grouping.
Vrinda Sahai
- India–Africa Strategic Partnership: Challenges, Potential, and Possible PathwaysArticle
A partnership between India, a country of subcontinental size, and Africa, a continent of fifty-four countries, may seem asymmetric until one notes that both are home to nearly the same number of people—1.4 billion. This essay spells out the existing challenges to the partnership, its optimal potential, and the possible pathways to realize it over the next quarter-century.
Rajiv Bhatia
- Emerging From the “Zombie State” of Trade Agreements: The India-EU FTACommentary
The India–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is shaping up to be one of the most consequential trade negotiations, both economically and strategically. But, what’s in the agreement, what’s missing, and what will determine its success in the years ahead
Vrinda Sahai, Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki
- India and a Changing Global Order: Foreign Policy in the Trump 2.0 EraResearch
Trump 2.0 has unsettled India’s external environment—but has not overturned its foreign policy strategy, which continues to rely on diversification, hedging, and calibrated partnerships across a fractured order.
- +6
Milan Vaishnav, ed., Sameer Lalwani, Tanvi Madan, …
