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So the main thing that I've been wondering is this. During 2011, the MENA region experienced what is now called in the West "The Arab Spring". This was a series of protests, revolutions, and armed insurrections against several dictatorial governments. While some countries were able to reform and avoid complete revolution, some fell into complete anarchy. Case in point; Syria, Yemen, and Libya.

Yet there was one country that was able to effectively buy out the protesters without harming the fundamental structure of its regime; Saudi Arabia. In 2011, the country experienced a number of protests, caused by discontent with the Wahhabi monarchy. Yet instead of reforming or experiencing revolution a la Syria, it instead did the following:

"King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz on February 23, 2011, announced a $35 billion package of financial assistance to the unemployed and support for first-time home buyers. On March 18, he announced new assistance totaling $96 billion for similar measures, in addition to creating 60,000 new security sector jobs."

It effectively bought out the protesters, slightly reformed its government via municipal elections, and most importantly, keep the regime intact. While there were some controversies surrounding this, Saudi Arabia managed to survive in a region plagued by instability

Now my main question is this. What if it went differently? Say if there was some encouragement by those in the royal family to crush the protests with prejudice, and Abdullah (the current king) goes through with this. The protests are crushed, and things return to normality. Yet as we've seen in Syria and Libya, this normality has an almost certain chance of devolving into an armed insurrection/civil war

So what would happen if it did? Who would be the main combatants in this 'Saudi Civil War'? Would it occur like in Syria, with a 'Free Arab Army' and a splattering of Jihadist organizations? Or would it be like with the Second Libyan Civil War, where it is a mess of competing governments and tribal associations? Who would fight, who would come out in the end, and what effects would this civil war have on the geopolitics of the middle east, and especially the world?
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