Saudi Arabia is in the middle of a diplomatic blitz. From hosting yesterday’s talks between Washington and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine to positioning the kingdom as central to the “day after” plans for postwar Gaza and offering to help deconflict tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Riyadh appears to be everywhere. This “peace push” is tethered to the political agenda of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS—namely, his effort to rehabilitate his own image while positioning the kingdom at the forefront of Middle East geopolitics and casting Saudi Arabia as a constructive player on the international stage.
At its core, this international push by Saudi Arabia is intimately linked to internal politics inside the kingdom, particularly MBS’ efforts to preserve and expand his own power. MBS is spearheading a new hypernationalist project designed to restructure the country’s domestic “ruling bargain” and transform Riyadh’s global image. Almost every Saudi policy at home and abroad is a byproduct of this new project as well as MBS’ ultimate imperatives of regime preservation and power projection. Critical to this effort is the restructuring of the Saudi economy toward a sustainable footing in anticipation of a future of declining oil revenues. MBS’ ambitious economic plan, Vision 2030, is the economic foundation of his new nationalist project, aimed at establishing Saudi Arabia as the major economic hub of the Middle East and a lucrative market for international capital.
For MBS, the success of this nationalist project is existential. It is the new autocratic foundation on which the crown prince—the kingdom’s de facto ruler who has already amassed more power than any individual in the history of the Saudi state—hopes to base his authority. But the success of this domestic vision depends on more than just absolute control at home. It is intertwined with regional and international objectives, making it also the driver of Saudi foreign policy.